BANG......wait. Nevermind.

So. I'm out in the middle of a field, measuring for a slab that we're pouring on Monday and I get a call from a number out of our area code that I don't recognize. Hello?

It was a CPS worker that had a happy healthy 2 month old boy that needed IMMEDIATE placement. She rattled on about name, history, mother's history, father's history and a bunch of other things.....the whole time my heart is racing and I only heard "immediate". We need a crib, we need diapers, we need formula, we need a car seat....I have 15 minutes. Zero to two month old in 5 seconds. I told her that I could not say yes until I spoke with my wife. At that moment, her other line rang and she said it was my wife calling her back (it wasn't). I told her to tell my wife I'd be home in 10 minutes.

I didn't call my wife because I was convinced she was hearing the same world-changing news as I was. I got a phone call from one of my workers on the way home...figured I needed it to calm my nerves. A MILLION things went through my head at once.

I need to get batteries for the camera because there will be a lot of pictures tonight.
Crib, playpen, toys, formula, diapers, car seat, how much formula for a two month old, how often, do I tell my mom, I guess I'm not going to the water park tomorrow, does this mean my MIL is going to practically move in with us, did I finish everything at work so I can take some time off, what was the kids name again, I wonder why a family member didn't come forward and take the..........

I notice that there's a voicemail on my phone that must have come in when I was talking to the worker.

It's the CPS lady.....turns out that call wasn't my wife. It was another CPS lady. A family member came out of nowhere to request the baby. Ok. Scratch that one off our list.

In two weeks, we've almost had a two year old girl, a ten year old girl, and now a two month old boy. By the time I was able to talk to Lori (who was taking a nap and missed it all) a whole 7 minutes after I found out, it was all over. We went to dinner and I was able to calm myself and tell the story.

It was a good practice run at what we NEED to get if it happens again. And I guess there is an outside shot that this family member won't be qualified to handle a kid and we'll be back in the game. The case worker was very complimentary and said our worker was very persuasive and said we're one of her "star" families. Our case worker called later and apologized (not really her fault at all) that it all happened so fast and ended the way it did.

We're surprisingly o.k. with all of it as usual. We're glad it happened before they put a two month old baby in my arms. Two hours later and I'd have to give it up and I think THAT would have been hard. Instead, we've kept it very business-like and we don't feel cheated or wronged at all.

But, with every close call, I can feel it getting closer. Still kind of hoping for the 3-4 year old boy (or girl) that we think is the best fit for us. But in the span of four days, we've had both extreme that we could go (a 10 year old and 2 month old) and were ready to accept both happily.