An email, two phone calls to her cell and a call to her work. Was there an emergency? These were all ways of trying to tell her a very important message. The thought of someone having the wrong number was way off topic when she finally picked up the phone. A biracial boy in need of a loving home was going to be born in about five weeks. We had tried joining adoption centers for the longest time but later came to the decision that maybe adopting an older child from the foster care system was a better idea. Of course, we had disposed of all of the baby stuff days before all of this happened. Without even discussing the situation with anyone else, not even my father, my mother accepted the offer of adopting a biracial boy which we know now as Kysen Joseph.

To my surprise, I was actually the first one to know about this soon to be a life-changing event. My heart started to pound so hard I was sure it would burst out of my chest. Excitement filled the air. All of the different possibilities, all of the fun we would have going out and even just buying the bare necessities all over again. My father found out in in the car, not sure where we were going, but for the first time, I saw him cry. No, he was not upset, those were tears of joy. Gammy, my grandma, found out over the phone while she was shopping. Of course, she was shopping because that's her favorite thing to do in her spare time. I can’t even begin to explain how much stuff she has in that house of hers. Long story short, Gammy had just bought a bag from the Coach store. This bag was a gift for my mother for her birthday. Funny thing is, that bag that Gammy bought was actually a diaper bag that my mom was going to use as a briefcase. Little did she know, she would need that diaper bag.

About a week later on Thanksgiving, we surprised cousins, grandparents, great grandparents and all of the extended family with this great news that we had been trying so hard to keep a secret. It just about exploded out through my mom’s lips when we sat down to eat dinner. Joy and happiness filled the room as if someone had just won the lottery. But this was way better than winning the lottery, we had hit the jackpot. During the weeks we spent waiting, my parents took special classes to show they were capable of being the parents of a child. Which of course we knew was possible because they already had my brother and I. The classes consisted of CPR and basic parenting skills for example, what to do in emergencies of what to do if someone is choking. We also had many social workers come to our house. They checked to make make sure everything was child proof and that I and my brother were ok with the idea of having a new sibling in the house. At all times, the birth mother was in mind. She was giving us a gift that no one else could ever give us. We thought to ourselves, Is this really real? Are the mom and baby ok? We knew all of her medical histories, all about her other six children but we weren’t getting very many updates about her and the baby. It worried us.  

Three weeks after finding out the big news of a biracial baby boy in need of a home, we received even better news, the mother was in labor and ready to welcome the new baby. Little ol’ me was in technology class at the time when I got a little slip of white paper requesting me down to the office. As I had never been in trouble before and I was only in fourth grade, I feared that I was about to be in deep doo-doo. When my brother and I both arrived up in the front at the same time I sighed in relief as I discovered that I actually wasn’t in trouble. Both of our parents were standing there. Smiles from ear to ear filled their faces. We knew what was going on. Both of us broke into tears as our parents told us that our new baby brother was soon to be born any minute. My parents were packed up and ready to fly out to Florida in order to greet our new baby brother as he was born. Because this was all happening in another state, it saddened both me and my brother because we wanted to be their as well and we couldn’t see our brother right away. After we celebrated, my parents were off and my brother and I headed back to class. I told my best friends the news and it was all I could think about all day long. It was just super-glued in my head and it wasn’t coming out. Right as my parents landed, at 7:11 pm, he was born. December 6th at 7:11 pm Kysen Joseph had been welcomed into the new world. When he was born, he wasn’t breathing that great, so he had to be put into a device that was kind of like an incubator. This helped him to breathe and further develop because he was a little early and had a rough start. Once my parents got to the baby, they randomly remembered that they forgot underwear, socks and their medicine. Oops!

Only two hours of the mother being with the baby, she happily passed him over to my parents. This was the last time she saw him in person. I can’t even begin to imagine how hard this was for her. She had just given to us a piece of her heart. I guess it was easy for her not to spend too much time with him before she got too attached and changed her mind about the adoption. My parents sent tons of pictures to the point where our storage got full. I never had that many baby pictures! We named him Kysen because, well, we wanted to name him Ky but some close friends named their new son Ky so we agreed to just go with Kysen and call him Ky for short. His middle name is Joseph because his birth mother had a brother who had passed away whose name was Joseph. He was very important to her and her only wish was that Ky would be named after him in some way. We did this because we wanted the mother to know that we really appreciated her and what she had done for our family. My parents also face timed us in order to keep us in the loop. It didn’t help because it just made me want to see my new little brother in person even more! Ten days passed and it. Wow, it was the longest ten days of our lives for all of us. Tomorrow, Kysen would come home.

My family and I ran out to the car to see our new family member. He was so little and of course, he was in the outfit I picked out for him because I have great style. We had presents for my mom and dad and presents for the baby. We had a big Welcome Home party with just a little part of the family. Not all of the family though because that would be too overwhelming, not only for my parents but also for Ky. It was late at night so we were all tired but we could not go to bed. We were all up till 1:00 in the morning thinking and talking about the future ahead. We were so happy yet still scared. Kysen was not legally in our custody at that time. The birth mother could still change her mind and decide to parent him and renege on the parenting plan she agreed to with my parents. This was devastating to think about but we were hopeful. Luckily, Kysen’s birth mom did not change her mind and he is now with us till the end of time. I could not be more grateful.