As you probably already know, we are adopting a little girl!
We are beyond excited and are doing everything we can to be prepared to welcome a beautiful new life into our home. As part of our adoption process, we have started a crowdfunding campaign. It may surprise you to hear that adoption related costs can easily total up to $50,000 or more. This is why we have set a goal of $25,000 to help ease the financial burden that often overwhelms adoptive parents.
We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as part of the community we hope to build around our child as he/she grows up.
~This is our Adoption Story~
Adam and I were married in 2012, and we quickly discovered that we couldn’t have children naturally. We were desperate for help; we called on friends and family members to pray. We sought medical advice and eventually decided to try In Vitro. If you’ve ever known anyone or have ever gone through this process yourself, you know that it is mentally, physically and emotionally exhausting. Ultimately, we were able to generate six embryos. The first two were implanted in March of 2016. This attempt (praise God) resulted in the birth of our son, Oliver, on December 23, 2016. The second embryo did not survive (vanishing twin).
We waited for a year and returned to our fertility doctor to try again; the second two were implanted in March of 2018. They survived for 12 weeks, but we discovered at that checkup that they did not have heartbeats. It was devastating: You start to dream about what your children will look like and who they will be, and it is such a heartbreaking loss, even though you have never met them. We waited for another year and returned in the hopes we would have a healthy set of twins nine months later. The procedure was unsuccessful.
We would have loved them all — all six of them. I wanted them all. But God has a plan and a purpose in everything that He does. And, we were so, so grateful that He had given us our Oliver — he is such a sweet blessing to everyone who knows him.
We have really struggled over the last months to determine what the next steps are for our family. Do we try IVF again? What about a surrogate? Or, perhaps an egg donor? We knew that we wanted more children; we wanted a bigger family and we wanted Oliver to have a sibling(s) to grow up with and be able to depend on later in life. My husband and I both have large families, and it’s what we want for Oliver as well. It creates such a sense of security when you have sisters and brothers walking with you through life’s journey.
Adoption: I can’t tell you how many times that word has crept into my spaces; whether during my quiet time or in a song, or in conversation. It kept popping up, and I kept pushing it away. I wasn’t ready …
At my husband’s urging, I joined a conference call late last year. It was an adoption agency walking through the steps required to start the process. I started asking questions; I started bringing it up with people I knew who had been adopted or who knew parents who had adopted. It just kept weighing on my heart:
• A father to the fatherless, is God in his holy habitation. God setteth the solitary in families: he bringeth out those which are bound with chains (Ps 68:5-6a).
• And who so shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me (Matt 18:5)
• He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger residing among you, giving them food and clothing (Deut 10:18)
So, now — after much prayer and deliberation - we are choosing hope. We know this is where God is leading; and, as we begin this new chapter and follow His calling, we seek your prayer and support.
Thank you, friends. We love you dearly, and we can’t wait to meet the child who God has chosen to complete our family.
To you, sweet one: we love you already.
