And Then There Were Four
by Riva White
After two years of infertility treatment John and I realized that we wanted a child to love. So began our search.
In January of 1996 we met with Jewish Family Services to discuss our options. Both John and I just knew that our child would be waiting for us in
Guatemala. We started our
home study in February of 1996.
We gathered all of our paperwork, had sessions with our caseworker, had our home visit, and after six weeks, our domestic homestudy was complete. Then it was time to start the process of international adoption. We had already filed our preliminary paperwork with INS. Now we had to provide them with a copy of our homestudy and family photos. Once we received approval from INS we sent the paperwork to our international adoption agency.
Our international adoption agency was World Child in Silver Springs, MD. They received our INS approval in early June, 1996. On June 25, 1996 we got the news that our son had been born. Jose (aka David) was born on June 23, 1996. I cried like a baby. I called John, my mom, my brothers, John's family, friends and anyone else who would listen.
David's birthmom was 13 years old and unprepared to raise a child. He was placed with a foster family in Guatemala as soon as he left the hospital. His foster family consisted of his foster mom, dad and 4 foster brothers, ages 7 through 17. They all fell madly in love with this wonderful, social person.
We were told that all of our paper work was flying through the court system in Guatemala. David would be home in October. My mother-in-law planned a baby shower for October 13th. We all laughed. What if I was in Guatemala during my baby shower?
On October 12th we received a call from World Child. There were problems with our paperwork. They spelled John's name incorrectly on a document (how do you misspell John White?) and a corrected version of our paperwork would have to go through the court system. It took everything I had to be a good hostess at my baby shower.
The week after my shower I did not feel "right." My body temperature felt high (strange, but true) and I just didn't feel like myself. On October 20th, John and I went out for breakfast. During breakfast I got a migraine. I'm not sure why, but for some reason, I decided that this was a sign that I had to do a pregnancy test. John knew I was losing it, but he humored me and we bought the test.
The pregnancy test was positive!!!When I showed John, he decided that I was part of the 1% that had an inaccurate test. The next day (Sunday) I tested again (with a different brand pregnancy test). I was still pregnant. John still did not believe it. The next day I went to the doctor. By his calculation, the baby was due on June 23 (David's birthday).
We left for Guatemala on December 9, 1996. We arrived home on December 11, 1996 with our beautiful son, David Albert Jose White. (Jose was the name that his birthmother gave him). He was 5 1/2 months old and absolutely gorgeous. A dream come true.
On June 4, 1997 David's baby brother, Jason, was born. At first David did not know what to make of this interloper. Today they are best friends. David takes care of his little brother. Jason looks up to his big brother. John and I couldn't be happier. We have our dream family.
Article and photographs 2000 (c) Riva White
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