Event precursors
My wife, Anne, and I are happily married and enjoy our lives together; after some discussion we decided to add to our family. Following a few heartbreaking miscarriages, we chose to adopt a child. Anne contacted multiple adoption agencies all over the country, some state-sponsored and some not; each had a website with photos and a brief description of children available. Most of Anne’s inquiries resulted in the children we found interesting no longer being available or some unlisted criteria had to be met for us to adopt the specified child.
Anne then had discussions via the Internet with several females of varying ages who claimed to be pregnant but unable to care for their unborn children adequately. After more time, sometimes weeks, in discussions with each, they all turned out to be fakes, phonies, frauds and liars. Not only were my wife and I angry, but we were also hurt because we had exposed ourselves to these manipulators! These impostors left us very distrusting of nearly each case we had later seen.
Give the dice another toss
Eventually we made contact with a young lady we will call ‘NJ,’ (referring to the Birth-Mom’s home state). After chatting with her for quite some time and making certain her story was legitimate, Anne and I agreed to meet with NJ prior to any legal or other formalities. NJ took a train to our home where we met her and hosted her stay for a week.
After her visit, NJ went back to her home until she was closer to her actual due date; meanwhile, Anne and I continued to prepare our home for our coming child and get regular reports from her doctor regarding the health of NJ and the baby. We all agreed that NJ would rejoin us as her due date got closer, roughly one month from her expected delivery.
Preparation
We picked our new baby girl’s name and gave her a nickname. We rushed to get tiny shoes, little stuffed animals, a little bed, miniature shirts and pants, hand-sized diapers and even new bottles that barely held more than a mouthful. Anne instantly repainted a room in the house that would become our daughter’s and filled it with her new furniture: a cute toy-box, a little dresser, a crib with fresh new sheets, filled her closet with the finest clothes available -- all to call her own. Other family members contributed tons of other diapers, a receiving blanket, pacifiers and other items…it would be a momentous occasion! Nothing would be too grand for the coming of our newest addition to the family! She would be brought into the traditional, old, Italian family as if she was one of our own, like she really belongs here. She was one of us now!
A child is born
After returning and staying with us for a month and enduring the discomforts that accompany pregnancy, NJ was more than ready to deliver our child. Anne checked on the internet for some way they could induce the birth and found a natural elixir she could create. 
At the Hospital NJ drank the concoction and was ready to deliver later that night. When she felt confident the birth was imminent, I hurried her to the hospital obeying only the laws I felt were necessary to avoid danger. I cut through a gas station parking lot to avoid a traffic light and, on another occasion, made a very brief stop at a four-way stop sign. No, my driving was not the safest, but I felt confident about my tactics and maneuvers. NJ, on the other hand, had no idea what was happening or where we were, but was just happy to make it to the hospital alive.
After a relatively brief time in the hospital (a matter of hours, not those quickie thirty-second births you see on television), NJ somewhat easily delivered a beautiful girl. While in the hospital, NJ kept the baby by her side and did not want to part with her for even a moment. After discharge from the medical facility, the four of us returned to my home where we cared for NJ and the new baby with the utmost concern; NJ, during her entire stay preceding and following the birth, never had to do a thing. Anne and I cooked for her, did her dishes, laundry, etc..
Devastation
After a few days, NJ returned home and left us to enjoy our new baby alone. We spent night and day marveling her little antics, her tiny smile, the way she smelled and all the fantastic and subtle nuances that accompany being a new parent. Seventeen days later we got a call from our attorney – NJ wanted the child back. We were sickened immediately. It was as if somebody disemboweled us in the center of town. We felt horrified that somebody could do something so despicable. Despite the many bad things that had happened to us in the past, this was the worst by far.
Never had we suffered like this before
NJ did not drive, so we had to arrange a meeting time and place where our lifeless forms would be forced to relinquish what little glimmer of light and hope remained. We had to wait for NJ to get time off work in order to schedule the return trip AT HER CONVENIENCE. My wife and I suffered day and night knowing that we would someday soon have to give away this child we had come to love so much. We felt publicly maimed – pain, anguish and humiliation for the whole world to see as our blood ran through the streets. Nothing, we thought, could help us recover from this torment.
Attempted healing
Trying to cope with our loss, Anne wrote a brief story of our ordeal on the Internet. A young lady in Texas (or simply TX) who was carrying a child she felt she could not adequately support read Anne’s story. TX empathized with our plight and saw within Anne’s story the type of parents TX desired for her unborn child. Since TX felt she was too young and in other ways unprepared for motherhood, she saw adoption as the best alternative for the baby she was carrying. After quite a few conversations, Anne and I flew to meet with TX and her mother. Upon meeting us, we felt more confident of a successful adoption, given TX’s age, parental involvement and topics mentioned during conversations. We discussed the arrangements we had with NJ and how we would like to take a similar approach. Without objection, Anne and I flew back to Vermont
Shortly thereafter, TX and her mother joined us. TX stayed in the room we had earlier prepared, while her mother chose to stay in a hotel. Different relatives came over or we went to their houses for dinner so both TX and her mother could meet everyone. After only a couple days, TX’s mother had to return to her job; we took her to the airport so she could go while TX stayed with us.
Here it comes!
As TX grew weary of carrying her unborn child and Anne’s anticipation started to overwhelm her, they conspired to induce labor. TX consumed the potion Anne mixed late in the evening and began experiencing intolerable pains at roughly 11:15 p.m. We all rushed to the hospital and, merely by coincidence, got the same labor room we had during NJ’s delivery. 
The Love of My Life While TX agonized through every passing moment, Anne and I feebly tried to assist by distracting her from the pain and encouraging her, reassuring that this pain was temporary.
While I understood that my participation in this ordeal could only be on the sidelines cheering, I wanted to play a greater role. As before, I felt awkward, like an intruder or some kind of peeping Tom each time I would glance over and speak to TX; I needed to be in a location between the birth canal and the birth mother’s head so I could turn my back toward any private areas.
Certainly I wanted to witness the whole birth of my daughter, but at the same time I wanted to respect the privacy of the young lady during delivery. At the conclusion of her misery, when the child was born at 5:30 a.m., I was given the luxury of cutting the umbilical cord. Following the obstetrician, I was the first person to hold my baby.
