"The Call"

For the last three months I would find myself daydreaming about when I would get “the call”. I would lay in bed at night and think about where I would be and what I would be doing. What would they say? What would I say? What would I do? Would I be in the car and have to pull over? Would Carlie and I be together or apart? It was a lot to think about and a lot to hope for.

My daydreaming came to an end on Tuesday, January 4^th around 2:00 p.m.  Let me tell you…for the last month I ALWAYS had my phone with me and it was ALWAYS turned on. You know…just in case. J  But as most people do, I become complacent with it and began to feel I was overreacting to the circumstances. So on this particular day my phone was out on my desk, but it was on silent. Around 2:00, I clicked my phone on to check to see if I’d missed any calls and sure enough! I had a missed call and a voicemail from Brenda in Iowa. Now…just about 24 hours earlier I had emailed Brenda about Carlie and I rescheduling our trip to meet her. I immediately assumed the voicemail was in response to my email and because of that decided to listen quickly to voicemail while my students were finishing up an activity. I stood at my desk, looking at my students, and listened to Brenda say something along the lines of this: Hi Katie, this is Brenda from Abby’s One True Gift. I did get your email and wanted you to know that I just responded but I am actually calling because I have a birth mother situation I think you might be interested in. I am eager to speak with you today so if you could call me back that would be great. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. There as an aide in my room who I knew I could leave my kids with, but recess was in ten minutes. I could wait ten minutes, right? Wrong. I walked to my classroom door, anticipating that I would wait the ten necessary minutes until my students went outside but by the time I got there, somehow I’d changed my mind. I don’t even remember walking to the door or opening it! I told the aide I would be back and to take the kids outside when it was time, and I was out the door looking for a room to make my return call in.

As you read, the next five or six hours were a blur.

Add this to the list of life-changing events that have happened in my classroom.