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From Monday to Friday: Four Days to Adoption
How fast can parenthood happen? It only took us four days… or six months… or two years, depending on how you look at it.
Pan in on a couple sitting across from each other at a table decorated with two margaritas and a centerpiece of guacamole. Their conversation is hushed, but from the look on their faces, serious. The man pushes his phone across the table. A single glance is all it takes for the woman’s eyes to brighten like a sunrise and then moisten like incoming rain.
The camera focuses on the phone’s display. The picture is of a newborn brandishing a contagious smile.
I like to think the movie of my life will start at that moment. Aged 41, happily married for 18 years and unknowingly passing a picture of my future daughter across the table to my wife.
Monday. The email spelled out the details: a newborn just three weeks old up for adoption. Most adoption opportunities presented themselves when the birth mother was in the last month of her pregnancy. In this instance, the birth mother had walked into the hospital and stated her intentions right before giving birth.
The emails from the adoption agency often included a picture of the prospective birth mother, but this one included a…