Waiting for Baby
PAGE 5
By August of 2008, Seth and Melissa were home study-approved, and spreading the word to everyone they knew. They created a blog with a short blurb about who they were and what their life was like, and sent it around to friends and family. Seth also created a flyer that Melissa passed along to her colleagues at school and posted at their synagogue. And, while they got lovely responses—others sharing their similar experiences—there weren't any leads on adopting a baby.
Shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday, Seth was tooling around on the computer late one night when a lightbulb went off: What if I post the flyer on Facebook? Seth had been a member for a few months and was slowly building connections. He'd heard of the social networking site's viral effect, and decided it certainly couldn't hurt. But he also knew it wasn't possible to post documents on Facebook, so he expertly converted the file to a PDF and then a JPEG, so he could save it as a picture.
"I put our adoption flyer up on Facebook," he informed Melissa the following day.
"Great!" she replied. "The more people who know we're looking, the better."
Two days later, Seth's friend, John, asked if he could post the flyer to his page.
And, in early December, Seth received a call from John's friend, Jenny, a woman from high school who he hadn't spoken to in twenty years. She explained that she had a construction company nearby, and that Lisa, the wife of one of her employees, was eight or nine months pregnant. They already had three kids, and she knew they didn't have a plan for the baby.
A few days later, Jenny called Seth at work. She said, "Lisa would like to talk to you, but she's too nervous to call. Could you call her?"
"Absolutely!" Seth said, trying not to set his hopes too high.
And that night, beset with frenetic anticipation, Melissa and Seth called Lisa—the woman who could possibly make their dreams come true.
"I'm really nervous," Melissa started.
"So am I," Lisa replied.
Melissa and Seth then told Lisa everything she needed to know about them, and the three decided to meet the following afternoon at a little Starbucks in the Giant supermarket near Lisa's work.
Shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday, Seth was tooling around on the computer late one night when a lightbulb went off: What if I post the flyer on Facebook? Seth had been a member for a few months and was slowly building connections. He'd heard of the social networking site's viral effect, and decided it certainly couldn't hurt. But he also knew it wasn't possible to post documents on Facebook, so he expertly converted the file to a PDF and then a JPEG, so he could save it as a picture.
"I put our adoption flyer up on Facebook," he informed Melissa the following day.
"Great!" she replied. "The more people who know we're looking, the better."
Two days later, Seth's friend, John, asked if he could post the flyer to his page.
And, in early December, Seth received a call from John's friend, Jenny, a woman from high school who he hadn't spoken to in twenty years. She explained that she had a construction company nearby, and that Lisa, the wife of one of her employees, was eight or nine months pregnant. They already had three kids, and she knew they didn't have a plan for the baby.
A few days later, Jenny called Seth at work. She said, "Lisa would like to talk to you, but she's too nervous to call. Could you call her?"
"Absolutely!" Seth said, trying not to set his hopes too high.
And that night, beset with frenetic anticipation, Melissa and Seth called Lisa—the woman who could possibly make their dreams come true.
"I'm really nervous," Melissa started.
"So am I," Lisa replied.
Melissa and Seth then told Lisa everything she needed to know about them, and the three decided to meet the following afternoon at a little Starbucks in the Giant supermarket near Lisa's work.
Excerpted by permission of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.
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