Jae's Arrival

Jae's story began to be lived on October 3rd, 1987.

She was born at a local hospital, and adopted just three days later by Ralph and I.
There were no advance preparations.
No baby showers.
We had learned of her existence only 72 hours before.

Ralph and I had experienced several disappointments in regards to failed adoption attempts, so for that reason, had not informed a single soul of the possibility of an adoption.
We simply were afraid to believe she was ours until we had her in our arms and in our home.

Her homecoming outfit was a hospital t-shirt.
The hospital staff loaned us a car seat. They had to put her in it because we had never seen one.
She had 1 hospital blanket.
Sample bottles of hospital formula.

You see, we had been childless for 7 years and suddenly, I mean suddenly, we had a baby!

Her arrival created instant pandemonium in our family, our church, our places of employment and even in our community.

Someone loaned us a video camera for our first days as new parents, and those movies documented some of the most wonderful memories of my entire life.
I recall watching the movie of our first nighttime feeding.....Ralph recorded the moment of me rocking and feeding her.
We commented that it was a "silent movie".
We were just too awestruck to speak.
Occassionally I would look at Ralph with wonder.

We were a family.

The next day, we recorded Jae's first bath in a mixing bowl on my living room floor. We could hardly get it completed because the phone kept ringing with friends and family calls of congratulations.

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Sadly, all of our home movies were later stolen in a home robbery.