Friday, March 20, 2020.
Schools announced Spring Break was extended, Waco announced lock down was beginning the following Monday, and the world as we knew it was flipping upside down.
4:45pm that same day I got a phone call, “Hey Victoria, there is a 1-week old baby girl about 4 hours away. If you say yes, she’s your daughter.” A brave, selfless, beautiful birth mom chose life for her sweet baby and baby girl was about to become our daughter through adoption.
And that’s how we became a family of 6 overnight. During a pandemic. Less than 48 hours later we were at the hospital meeting our precious Ryan Kate (separately, because Covid kept us 1 at a time.. so we never met her together until she was a month old!) The next month was filled with NICU days and nights, my husband hours away working from home while raising a 2,3, and 6 year old, and figuring out life in a pandemic. Sound stressful? It was.
But it was also amazing. I never had a full month to just sit and hold my other 3 children for hours and hours a day. I literally had no job except to bond with her. If the world and school hadn’t been shut down, I’m not sure how we would have juggled work, school, MDO, and all that raising 3 kids bring while 1 parent was 4 hours away and zero help. But with Covid striking, the world stopped and with that so did schedules and all the regular chauffeur duties of a mom.
Once we brought our daughter home, I absolutely loved having zero expectations. I usually have FOMO after babies because I’m adjusting and the world is still spinning. So I miss out on all the fun of the outside world! This time – no one had plans so I wasn’t missing anything! That made my social butterfly heart very happy, haha.
On a much more important note, we were able to fully and deeply bond with our new daughter and sister without the hustle and bustle of getting kids to school, visitors dropping by and hanging out (which we appreciate SO much but loved the slow pace of no one visiting except to drop food ☺️), and just rushing back into life because we felt like we had to. All we had on the schedule was snuggles and pjs the first 3-4 months of her life. It was glorious! I absolutely loved bringing home a baby during a pandemic!
I personally feel like with the slow pace of life during the majority of 2020, I was able to fully cherish and enjoy our daughter’s first months home. It was a blessing I’ll always be grateful for. This year has been weird in every way. But for our family, bringing home a baby when the world was locked down was amazing. It tested us. Strengthen us. And molded us.
That sweet little baby is now 9 months old, fully adopted and an official Brown kid! It’s been an interesting but incredible journey doing this in 2020. But one I can’t imagine looking any different.
Photo Credit: Emily Grace Photography
And as a sidenote – if you have any questions about adoption, I’d love to answer them! I’m no expert but my heart is for adoption and loving birth moms, so I love to chat about it!
