We Met...(continued)

The day we got "the call," our social worker told us that the expectant mother wanted to meet us the following Thursday, October 11.  She lives out of state, 7 hours away, and we were to meet at the Olive Garden for lunch.
We drove up on October 10, a Wednesday, got acquainted with the area a little, had pizza, and crashed at our hotel.  Our hotel, by the way, was Springhill Suites.  If you ever have the opportunity to stay in a Springhill Suites, do it!  They are fabulous.  The best part is that I scored an incredible deal through Priceline, so we only paid $70 for the night.
The next morning, DH and I were a bundle of nerves.  We told ourselves to just be ourselves. After all, she had chosen us for a reason.  Somehow, someone actually liked us enough to choose us to become her child's parents!  I know, weird, huh?  ;-)   I decided to ditch the little notepad I had been writing potential questions in the entire trip up and just go with the flow.
We arrived at the Olive Garden 15 minutes earlier than the scheduled meeting.  We didn't want to arrive after she did, figuring that wouldn't be good.  The waitress asked to seat us, but we told her that we were waiting for our party and  we'd let her know when they arrived.  After our scheduled meeting time came and went, the waitress asked again to seat us, so we let her seat us.  15 more minutes went by.  DH and I started to get panicky.  Did she change her mind?  Were we at the right Olive Garden?  Is there more than one Olive Garden in the area?
At that moment, I got a call from our social worker in VA asking where we were because their social worker was waiting for us.  Turns out, she was in front of the restaurant waiting for us (where we had been prior to the waitress seating us).  The expectant mother had not arrived yet.  She and her mom were running a little late and would arrive 5 minutes later.  We waited in the front.
A few minutes later, she and her mom rounded the corner.  I didn't know quite how to feel or what to expect until that moment.  All I wanted to do at that moment is to immediately wrap my arms around this incredible girl.  So I did.  She had the biggest smile on her face.
Lunch went very well.  We instantly felt a strong connection with both the e-mom and her mom.  The social worker had an easy job because the conversation flowed as if we had known each other for years.  E-mom was so sweet.  We have so much in common and the match just made sense.
There were many, many God stops during this trip.  After all they have been through, e-mom and her mom are two of the most unselfish people I have ever met.  Simply amazing.   Most of all, we are humbled and honored to be chosen to raise this e-mom's baby.  Through e-mom's own words, "I feel like God chose you guys through me to be the perfect parents for this baby."  Wow.  Tears.