Many of you know about our fertility struggles: they led to the adoption of our daughter Juliette in April 2015. Since her adoption, we’ve continued trying to be thoughtful and faithful as we seek to build our family. Instead of infant adoption this time, we’re going through the process of embryo adoption. Practically it looks like IVF: hormones to trick Amy’s body into thinking it’s pregnant, then thawing embryos and transferring them. We wanted to have an open relationship with the biological family of any children we adopt this way (like we do with Juliette’s birth family), so we have the added step of coordinating for an open adoption. It’s weird to have to choose your kids/family (we had a list of hundreds to choose from). We have gone through two unsuccessful rounds of this treatment, and will pursue our third and last try later this year. We’ve been so blessed to have people love us and walk with us throughout our journey through infertility, Juliette’s adoption, and now embryo adoption. It’s been a tremendously humbling example of God’s love and care for us through the ups, downs, difficulties and general grind of this journey over the past 6 years or so. Thank you for loving us so well.
Update: In October 2017, Amy was preparing for our final transfer, scheduled for November. For health reasons, the transfer had to be delayed until at least January 2018. On December 7, 2017, we were contacted by Juliette's birth family, asking if we would be interested in adopting a sibling! Our answer was "absolutely!" Amy was able to be present at the anatomy scan with the birth mother and find out Juliette would have a little sister, due April 28, 2018. Jillian Lee arrived on April 7, 2018 (her Auntie Jen's birthday). We were thrilled to be in the hospital when she was born and meet her when she was just 20 minutes old. When we set out on the journey of adoption, we never anticipated raising siblings, so that has been a fun surprise. For now, we have decided to not pursue any form of adoption, but that could always change down the road. We are so thankful to everyone who has supported us and shared in the excitement as we have built our family.
