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Baby boy joy! Worth the wait
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| By: Jessica Leafblad |
October 21, 2009 |
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Bobbi Smuda came to visit The Chetek Alert staff, including her husband, Paul, the Alert’s production manager, with their newly adopted baby boy, Liam.
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Getting a phone call at 10:30 p.m. on a Saturday was something unexpected for Paul and Bobbi Smuda. Paul, the production manager at The Chetek Alert, and Bobbi, a medical transcriptionist, were about to become the adoptive parents of a baby boy, Liam Harry Smuda.
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Liam was born at 12:53 p.m., Sept. 19, in Panama City, Fla.
Before starting the adoption process a couple years ago, the Smudas were involved with treatment foster care.
"We cared for 4-, 5- and 6- year olds, one of which stayed with us for 16 months," reflects Bobbi, "We would of liked to have adopted them, but it just didn't work out."
The Smudas decided after foster care that they wanted to adopt a child of their own. They completed the paperwork in January 2008 through an agency called Crossroads. Like any couple who want to adopt, the process is lengthy, especially with the additional time waiting to be chosen by a birth mother. The Crossroads agency informed the Smudas to expect to wait at least a year.
They eventually were chosen this past May, but the adoption fell through when the mother decided to keep the baby. Throughout the year they got many phone calls, but no baby.
The minute they got the phone call Sept. 19, they were in disbelief-there had been so many hopeful times, but no adoption had ever progressed to this point before. The baby was from Florida, and by law, once the mother has signed off her consent, she has only one day to make a final decision.
Once the Smudas heard from the social worker that Liam's birth mother had signed the paperwork, they were on their way to pick up their baby. It was 6 p.m. Sunday and they had until 2:30 p.m. Monday to be in Panama City. They soon discovered that flights were too expensive so the Smudas, along with Bobbi's parents, Raymond and Eunice Yurko, of Ladysmith, drove 23 hours straight. They arrived at Bay Medical Center just 10 minutes short of their deadline.
"It was a very exciting and emotional moment," says Paul about walking into the nursery and seeing Liam for the first time.
They stayed at the Ronald McDonald House in Tallahassee, making their stay in Florida about a week.
The adoption of Liam is semi-open, which means the Smudas can send pictures of Liam, along with letters to the biological mother and vice versa. They said they want Liam to know that he was adopted, know who his biological mother is, and if he wants in the future, to have a relationship with her. The Smudas said they admire Liam's birth mother even though they never met her. They thought her carrying him to full-term and giving him up to the Smudas was a selfless act.
When asked what advice they could give to couples who want to adopt, Bobbi quickly replied that doing a lot of research on agencies and just having patience are key elements.
"The whole adoption process can be very frustrating, but it is worth it in the end," says Bobbi looking down at Liam. "During the process our marital bond was strengthened, our Christian faith was strengthened and at the end of it all, we've been blessed with a perfect little addition to our family. He was the answer to our prayers."
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©The Chetek Alert 2009
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