Miranda's Adoption Story
Miranda was adopted in 1990 at only 3 days old in Lancaster, Ohio. She grew up with adoptive parents who loved and cherished every moment of her life. Miranda also has an older sister who was adopted as an infant. Miranda has lived firsthand the life of an adoptee and adoption has always had a special place in her heart.
Our Adoption Story
Before Miranda and Matthew got married (in 2013), they discussed future plans on how many children they wanted to have. Miranda's immediate response was "have one and then adopt one!". Matthew agreed. In 2015 they decided it was time to start trying for their first baby! Miranda's first pregnancy was in March of 2015, and ended May of 2015. The loss experienced was heartbreaking. They took some time off from trying to conceive to focus on their jobs and education and moved to Jacksonville, FL.
2019 was a BIG year. After many years of success in both their careers, Miranda and Matt purchased their first home! It was then they decided they were ready to try and conceive again. Miranda got pregnant in May 2020! She made the hurdle of 8 weeks and was able to hear the baby's heartbeat. Due to COVID-19 Restrictions, Matt was not able to attend but was able to hear and see via facetime. Miranda then had her 16-week check-up. She was so excited to see how much the baby had grown. However, instead of receiving news of a healthy baby, she was told the baby had, unfortunately, passes away at 10 weeks, and she was experiencing a missed-miscarriage. The amount of emotional and physical loss Miranda and Matt experienced is indescribable. It was not until another 4 weeks had passed that Miranda experienced her miscarriage. She did not even want to think about trying again for another year.
In January 2021 after a lot of prayers from God, Miranda was blessed with another baby. This pregnancy was short-lived at only 8 weeks and only 1 day before their first ultrasound. By this point in time, Miranda was upset and confused. She would ask herself "Why does this keep happening to me?". They decided not to wait long before trying again. They were unsuccessful all year.
In December of 2021, they decided to go get testing done by their OBGYN. Miranda was informed that she had severe endometriosis and a large cyst and needed to undergo surgery immediately. Her surgery had some minor complications: not all of the endometriosis was removed due to its location. Her doctor informed her that without additional surgeries, getting pregnant would be more difficult. After a VERY long recovery, Miranda and Matt decided they wanted to try for one more year before they looked at other options.
That brings their story to the present time. It has now been over a year since trying to conceive with zero success. Miranda told Matt that they could keep trying but in the meantime wanted to pursue adoption. We are beyond excited and are doing everything we can to be prepared to welcome a beautiful new life into our home.
Our Crowdfunding Campaign
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 $80,000 or more. This is why we have set a goal of $75,000 to help ease the financial burden that often overwhelms adoptive parents.
We believe that adoption is very special to God's heart and He calls us to support adoptions in some way, whether that's by adopting ourselves, financially supporting adoptions, or partnering in prayer with adoptive families and birth mothers. 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. Ultimately, we know our God will provide how He sees fit and we have full faith that He will do that in His timing.
If you are unable to donate financially, we would be so grateful if y'all would partner with us in prayer, praying that God's name would be lifted up in this process, and that our child's birth mother would feel loved and comforted by God in this incredibly tough decision, and that we would trust His loving faithfulness and He would prepare us for what is coming.
We hope you feel our gratitude and thankfulness for every prayer, donation, and encouraging word. God has used our sweet family, friends, community, and even strangers to be a means for His provision, and we are overwhelmed with thankfulness. Thank you for your time and for reading, praying, donating, and sharing! Such a gift to us.
Hey Fam,
Just a quick update. We have officially submitted our profile book content to Luna Designs and submitted our Adoption Loan request from our bank. We are still waiting to hear back from both. It will take about 45 days to get a rough draft of our profile book back! We are excited for this step because once the book is complete and we have secured funds, we can start applying to cases!
Much love from the O'Brien Family <3
As of 3/4/2023 Matthew and I are officially Homestudy Approved! Our next step is to finish our adoption profile book with Luna Designs and hopefully start applying to cases :D Matthew and I have purchased our first car seat and stroller in preparation for a future baby arrival!
Hello everyone!
Matthew and I have successfully completed our homestudy! We are just waiting to hear back on the "results". Next is working on our adoption profile book. This is where we need to purchase professional photography sessions to help highlight who we are, what we like to do, and to help set us apart from other families. We have applied for multiple grants and are waiting to hear back if we qualify for those. Thank you again to everyone who has donated. You are making a huge impact on our lives.
Hey everyone! We officially have our homestudy scheduled for January 29th! Things are speeding up quickly <3 We are also in the process of compiling all the pictures and letters for our adoption profile book. Please keep us in your prayers!
Thanks to the Stroup's and Le's donations, we were able to get a jump start and make our homestudy deposit and appointment! Prayers that all goes well.
