Our Story
On May 10, 2001 my boyfriend of almost one
year got down on one knee and ask me to marry him. I was a junior in high school
he had graduated the May before and was already out in the work field. We
started planning our wedding which would happen 7 days after I graduated high
school the next May. With plans of a wedding came dreams of our life together
which included babies. We wanted to start a family pretty fast even though
everyone warned us we should wait and enjoy life with just the two of us for
awhile. We knew every since the day we meet that we wanted nothing more than to
be parents. Fast forward one year and on May 31, 2002 we were married in a
beautiful outdoor ceremony with all our family and friends. As soon as we were
married I had visions of what our nursery would look like, what we would name
our unborn children and how I would tell my husband that I was pregnant. As we
were getting ready to celebrate our one year Anniversary we were both surprised
that I wasn’t pregnant yet. All the doctors told us to give it awhile longer
after all we were at the young age of twenty and twenty-one. The whole month of
May I researched infertility and was starting to fear the worse when I decided
that we should pursue adoption. I meet my husband at the door one night as he
walked in from a day at work and told him “we have to adopt!” Of course he
thought I was crazy but I had a fire down deep in me that was telling me we had
to do this and we had to do it now. I
had never been impacted by adoption or ever really knew anything about it. I
knew that I wasn’t getting pregnant but yet I felt like I needed to turn to
adoption now and not later. After
talking to my husband I did some research and found out that we weren’t even
legal to adopt in our home state. At the time you had to be twenty one and
married for at least 3 years. Instead of getting upset or down about this I just
said that’s okay we will just go to another state. I knew that we had to do this
now and not later. I decided to do a little research at the local library and
online and I came across a dear birthmother letter and went ahead and typed one
up for us that included family pictures, how important holidays are to us and
how much we couldn’t wait to become parents.
A couple weeks later we decided to tell our families that we were hoping
to adopt. We got mixed responses and mostly the “you guys are to young just
enjoy life and babies will come.” As we chugged along with research I also
emailed everyone we knew and told them we were hoping to adopt. This was before
social media had exploded so email and phone calls was the only way to go. Much
to our surprise one month later we received a call about a birthmother that
wanted to place with us. That call would make us parents to a beautiful baby
girl that would be born in less than 30 days.
Talk about a crash course in adoption. We had a rushed home study, made
numerous calls to find out what the quickest way to get our fingerprints and FBI
background checks done and back to us was. Our dreams of becoming parents was
coming true and with that came chaos of getting ready for a baby in 30 days. As
we were getting the nursery ready it was surreal, I packed the diaper bag and
repacked it at least 25 times. I had no idea what all we would need to take care
of a newborn in a hotel so I just took everything. I researched adoption in any spare time I had
and prayed for the best. After all I was
20 years old and getting ready to drive half way across the USA to meet my
daughter. In the midst of all the rushing we had mixed reactions from family and
friends. We even had one friend tell us they knew a couple in their church that
had been trying to adopt for over 2 years and we should pass the birthmother
information on to them because they were older and deserved the baby more than
us. We knew this was our baby girl and continued with everything we needed to do
before her birthmother called and said it was time. On August 6th, 2003 just three months after we
celebrated our one year anniversary we packed our car down and headed on our
journey. We were in New Mexico when we got the call that she had been born. I
remember the nurse telling us how she had beautiful skin and hair. We heard that
her birthmother was doing great and all we wanted to do was drive faster to get
to the hospital. The most beautiful baby girl was placed by her amazing
birthmother in our arms when she was 18 hours old. We fell in love with her at
first sight and she has been the center of our world since. I will never forget the moment the nurse
handed her to me, I sunk down in the chair and time stood still, and I was a
mother. I was everything I ever wanted to be. As we spent our first week as a
family of three in the local holiday inn express we were in awe at this
beautiful child that was placed with us. We spent our days waiting for the ICPC
to clear by loving on a newborn baby girl, getting many questions as to why in
the world we were staying in a hotel with a 3 day old infant and emailing
pictures back to our family in Oklahoma. Once we got the call that we were cleared to
leave we packed up and couldn’t wait to get home. As we turned on our road for
the first time as a family of three I seen balloons and signs and people were
standing outside just waiting to get their hands on the baby girl they had all
prayed for. We settled into life back home and waited for the call to tell us
when we would return to finalize her adoption. On the day she turned 9 months
old she became officially our child. I walked into that court room with so much
love in my heart for her that I couldn’t hold the tears back as we made it
official. Standing next to the judge with our lawyer to take pictures was one of
my favorite memories! Watching her grow up is the most beautiful experience in
my life and I am blessed by not only her but her birthmother who choose us. Over
the last 9 years we have became adoption advocates, meet several lifelong
friends through adoption and continue to share our story. We love to give people
hope that it’s okay to adopt as a young couple we are proof that it happens. We
celebrate our daughter’s gotcha day every year with a dinner in her honor and at
9 years old she is a lover of adoption and has several friends she has made due
to adoption. Last year she decided to raise money for her adoption day and
donate the money to family that was hoping to adopt to help out with expenses.
She raised 300.00 selling candy bars and had the time of her life explaining to
people why adoption was so near and dear to her heart. In the end we became a
family just the way we were supposed to and when we supposed to. Adoption
completed our family!
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