I totally and completely lost my shit at work today. When I heard what our daycare had to say, I thanked them, hung up the phone, and then just burst into tears. I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m not a pretty crier. Nor am I a quiet one. I tried to stay quiet as I cried uncontrollably.
Don’t worry, they were happy tears. The last few weeks have been hell. Evening meetings, 6 weeks of work to complete in one, getting a million little things ready for baby, and nanny interviews. A TON of Nanny interviews. I’ve gone through at least 30 applications, set-up interviews with 11, and even made two offers. At yet, somehow, we still have no nanny. Despite our best efforts, we just haven’t found that magic combo. We even broke down and enlisted the aid of a nanny placement agency. Still no luck.
The constant interview rotation, all the phone calls to schedule, juggling nanny-finding in between work, attorney calls, paperwork, and trying to finish our adoption classes has been tough. And I’m angry because I’m not finding enough time to just enjoy my girls before the baby gets here. We don’t have that many days left that we can just go to the park with the four of us. I want to make sure we all get to enjoy a few things while they are still the center of our world. They’ll still be at the center later, but an infant will be sharing that space.
Queue the phone call. Out of sheer desperation and frustration I asked our daycare if there was any chance they’d have an infant opening in May. We know we can’t afford it, but when it comes to our children, can we afford to not have them in proper care? We’ve been tossing around plan B’s and plan C’s all week. In fact, I think we might be onto plan T at this point. We could let a few of our loans default, one of us could quit our job, I could extend my leave and take some unpaid time off, we could try an in-home for the baby and keep the girls in the center or we could go into debt paying to keep them in the center.
This phone call changed everything. I was calling to confirm how much it would be to have all three in the center. I needed to know if this option even stayed on the list of possibilities. “We have a scholarship program that you may want to apply for. I think you would have a good chance at getting one.” I thanked the director and hung up. The answer isn’t definite, we don’t even know how much the scholarship would be for, but it may mean that it’s possible to keep the girls in the center and the baby could join them. This would be amazing. One of my hesitations through this process has been pulling the girls out of a place where they have blossomed. The teaching evaluator that comes to our home is extremely impressed by their development and verbal skills as well as physical milestones. I’d like to think part of this is us, but I also know part of this is the daycare that they spend 40 hours a week at.
For me, this option is ideal. We get the reliability we need and they stay in a place that helps them learn and grow. We know we’re comfortable leaving an infant in their care, because we’ve already had two there. So tonight, I’ll write an essay. I’ll hope it’s a good one and I’ll wish for the best.
Cancer Ever After 
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