We could have never guessed how our story would unfold as we began the journey of starting our family – since the time of our engagement, we have always expressed to each other our hope for adoption to be part of our family. We have felt God leading us to this and are so excited to grow our family through adoption! We are trusting the Lord as we take the next steps in pursuing this journey.
For those of you who may not know us well, we have one 3 year-old biological son named Jack, who is the light and joy of our lives! We also have two daughters, Millie and Sophia, who have now gone to be with Jesus. Our precious Millie was born January 26, 2023. We brought our beautiful girl home and Jack couldn’t wait to be a big brother! At a couple weeks old, she became sick so we pretty quickly took her in to receive medical care. Her health began to rapidly decline and much to the medical team's confusion, there was little understanding as to why she was so ill. The doctors tried everything they could think of, and she put up the best fight. However, she passed away on February 22, 2023. Much to our surprise, a few months after Millie’s passing, we found out we were expecting! A precious gift to us in the midst of great grief and loss. We welcomed our next sweet daughter Sophia into the world on March 20, 2024. We brought home our girl, and Jack took on his “job” of big brother so well. A couple weeks into her life, she began to get sick and had a very similar presentation as her big sister Millie. After a tough hospital journey, at 5 weeks old, Sophia was diagnosed with Multiple Mitochondrial Dysfunctions Syndrome 1 (MMDS1), which is an incredibly rare genetic disorder with no cure. Our sweet Sophia hung on until April 27, 2024 when she passed away. We spent the last days with both girls holding their hands tightly, sitting by their side, soaking up every moment together that we could. We learned that we are both carriers of a gene that can cause MMDS1 in our biological children. We deeply miss our precious daughters and we continue to share their stories. We carry the memory of their lives with us daily, while trusting they are fully restored in the presence of Jesus.
As our family has walked through the joys of new life through our three beautiful children, the tragedies of our losses, and all things in between, we remain hopeful in God’s plan – taking great comfort in knowing He has always been, and always will be in control. He has proven to be faithful, even in the midst of extreme heartache and because of this we can walk confidently in these next steps of continuing to grow our family through adoption.
It might surprise you to hear that adoption-related costs can easily total up to $60,000 or more. In the US, 33% of couples consider adoption; however, 79% of the families are deterred by the high costs, and in the end only 2% adopt. Admittedly an intimidating number to us, we know we can come together and reach our goal of $50,000. These fees cover the costs of the home study, legal services, medical expenses/care for the birth mom, agency/placement services, and more.
With heartfelt gratitude, we thank you for walking with us on this journey and hope that you would consider joining us in prayer for this process and/or supporting us monetarily through our crowd funding page we have created here on AdoptTogether! Any donations given to our AdoptTogether page will strictly be going to adoption related expenses listed above. AdoptTogether is an IRS approved 501(c)(3) organization and your donations are tax deductible. Your generosity means more to us than words can express. We hope that by inviting you into this process, you will see yourself as part of our valued and treasured community.
– The Stallard Family
