The Interrogation

Welcome back to Day 21 of Our Adoption Adventure. Thanks for following along. To start reading at the beginning click here.

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         After feeding the babies, a nurse came into the room and said Emma had requested the babies to come to her room. We didn’t know what to do or where to go as she wheeled the babies out together in their bassinet.

         We waited for a few minutes and then decided to go to Emma’s room and see her. She was lying on her side with her arm stretched around both babies who were in the middle of the bed with her. She was beaming with pride over her two boys.

         We chatted with her, marveling at how beautiful the babies looked. We discussed who they looked like and which of their features looked like her. One of the babies had her dark complexion. The other had her facial features. I took some pictures of her with the babies.

         She looked natural with them and enjoyed watching them sleep beside her. My husband and I were exhausted from driving and staying up all night. We decided to leave and find a hotel to check into and eat breakfast.

         After we rested at the hotel for a few hours, I was anxious to see the babies again. We drove to a store and bought two infant car seats, two newborn boy outfits for them to wear home and tiny diapers.

         I was so proud of Emma. She looked happy with the babies in her bed. I wanted to show her how grateful we were to her. We looked around for a gift that would express our feelings.  We decided on a dainty necklace with an angel on it. That seemed appropriate. She was the angel who gave birth to these boys, choosing to carry them for nine months and keeping them healthy in her belly. We also bought some flowers and a vase for her room.

         Emma was elated with the flowers and necklace. I think she was mostly grateful we thought of her. It was a little awkward standing in her room with her. She was pleasant and enjoyed talking about the birth and the babies, but we did not feel like the babies were ours yet.

                  Later that afternoon, a nurse found us in the waiting room and said the family would like to see us in Emma’s room. They wanted to meet us. I had an uneasy feeling as my husband and I walked down the hall to her room. We wondered what this was about and if it meant Emma had changed her mind about the adoption.

         My husband and I had visited more than a dozen friends and couples from our Bible study class in the hospital who just gave birth. I also delivered our two children in the hospital back home. But never had we seen a room like Emma’s when we walked in this time.

         The room was filled with people. I counted twelve of her family members and friends in the room, not counting my husband, Emma and myself. The babies slept soundly together in their single bassinet next to Emma’s bed. She introduced us to her parents and the others in the room. Each one glared at us. None of them smiled. None of them were happy to see us.

         What was going on here? Did they call us in to make some big announcement? I felt uneasy and awkward. This could not be good.

         The room was hot and the only place for us to stand was in front of Emma’s bed with everyone surrounding us. There were empty fast food bags, cups, napkins and food on every flat surface in the room. Emma’s mother began asking us questions:

How did we discipline?

Would we give them a pacifier?

Were we going to get them vaccinated?

How often would we feed them?

Did we know what to do with a baby that cried all night?

Someone from the back of the room asked if we had ever raised twins before.

         This interrogation went on for a while. After the questions came the lectures. Different ones told us how to raise kids, what to feed them, how to get them to sleep, how to dress them.

         I could feel the heat rise on my neck and face. My hands began to sweat as I shifted back and forth.  My husband’s face was red from heat and the tension in the room. What is going on here? We wondered. Who are all these people? Between their glares and snide remarks, it was clear this group of people did not like us nor that we were adopting the babies. We tried to be pleasant and answer their questions and listen to the lectures. After an hour passed, we both began to wonder how we could make a gracious exit and walk out of there.

         Then Emma did something I would never forget. Still wearing her hospital gown and socks, she climbed out of the bed and began cleaning up the room. She picked up the napkins off the floor and the empty food bags on the table and began throwing them in the trash. Nobody in the room moved to help her or said a word. I stepped toward her,

“Emma, you shouldn’t be doing this. You just had surgery. You should rest back in bed.” I said.

An angry male voice chimed in from the back of the room,

“Let her do what she wants!”

I stopped helping Emma and stepped back to my husband.

Taking that as our cue, my husband said to Emma,

“We are going to go now.”

Then said to the crowd, “Nice to meet all of you.” 

Nobody said a word.

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    Have you ever felt trapped in an awkward situation and could not find a way to get out?

*** Thank you for reading. Join me here tomorrow for Day 22. ***