"I've never brought up a child… and I dare say I'll make a terrible mess of it. But I'll do my best" - L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables.
In March 2005, I sat solemnly in a church pew along the Texas/Mexico border. It was the first day of a mission trip that brought us to a poorly-funded orphanage in Piedras Negras, Mexico. I met the most peculiar little girl of only eight years of age. She immediately stole my hat, running away. I hadn’t the heart to request it back. It was all I could give at the time. Yet as I sat in a church pew at seventeen, I felt like I needed to do more. It was then that a new friend I’d made sat beside me and told me her own story of helplessness. Her arms ached something furious from carrying around a little orphan girl the entire day. It was all she could offer, and she offered it without regret.
We cried together.
Seven days later I asked that friend to take a risk by dating me. Church camp relationships never last, but here we were, having shared such intimacy and heartache in such a short period of time. On March 25th, 2005 we took a chance against all the odds. Now, happily married fifteen years later, we’d like to ask you to take a different chance with us.
You see, we’d only been dating a couple of months when I asked Jillian what she wanted to be when she grew up. She looked at me without hesitation, those blue eyes tearing up behind ridiculously out-dated blonde bangs. “A Mother.” She said. We were idealistic imaginative high schoolers, but I looked at her and said simply that I couldn’t wait to experience that with her.
I’ll spare the dark details of the last eight years of infertility: the failed pregnancy tests, the hope-dashing miscarriages, and the thousands of dollars spent on inconclusive medical tests. Much of which we’d rather forget. However, at the end of it, we realized that our entire relationship had been building toward adoption.
Today, we are thrilled to announce that we have officially begun the process of welcoming a beautiful new life into our home. For the last three years we’ve been setting aside money with the aid of Jillian’s parents toward adoption. All-the-while local and federal legislation has continued to remove funding towards family services, which has almost doubled the cost of adoption.
Therefore, as part of our adoption process we have started a crowdfunding campaign. It may surprise you to hear that adoption related costs are now estimated at near $40,000. Over the last three years, we’ve been able to raise $15,000 and our goal, through this campaign, is to directly match what we’ve raised on our own.
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 they grow up. This request comes with no obligation, but rather is an open door to those who have witnessed our infertility journey the past eight years and felt called to help.
Fifteen years ago we were overwhelmed when all we could give was a hat or a shoulder to fall asleep on. We’re so thankful that with your help we can finally give a beautiful child something so many children lack in this world: A loving and grateful home.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. Thank you for the kind words of encouragement you’ve shared with us over the years. Thank you for everything you’ve all done thus far and thank you for your help with this final step that will become the first step in a much happier and brighter journey of parenthood. Thank you for being part of our story.
Finally, for others who have had their lives bring them to infertility like ours has, I want to give you this encouragement:
You are safe.
You are loved.
You are wise.
-The Hord Family: Growing Soon.
