Our Journey to Adoption

Even before we were married, we knew adoption was on our hearts. We married in May 2002 and by the Fall of 2003, we had been trying to conceive for over a year without success. We met with a fertility specialist and also decided to start researching adoption. We were devastated to find out we were too young for most international adoptions, specifically China. Then (after 17 months of trying) we were blessed with our first pregnancy! Nine months later, Braylee arrived.  We were beyond thrilled! With the help of a little fertility medicine, we were blessed with another little girl almost exactly two years later! At this point, I thought we'd found the "cure" to our infertility issues and didn't think we'd have to struggle through it again.

Boy was I wrong... Almost two years after deciding to try for #3, we had spent thousands of dollars on treatments, tried multiple medications and injections, cried for months and months, and prayed and prayed for a miracle. When we met with the fertility specialist again this spring, he told us, "I'm shocked you've ever gotten pregnant." When I reminded him that we have TWO girls, he shook his head and said "You two have about a 2% chance of getting pregnant on your own." Tingles ran down my spine and I was reminded in that moment just how much bigger God is than science!

During our most recent fertility treatments, we also started talking adoption again. On our way to Disney World back in March, we talked about how we felt like God was leading us through infertility again to help us realize adoption was still in our future...but at the time I thought in the future...I wasn't quite ready to quit trying for another biological child. The morning we arrived in Florida, my mom and I were sitting by the pool and she says, "Have you guys thought about adopting?" My heart began to race and I shared our desire to adopt...specifically from China.

Over the next few months, I researched adoption into the wee hours of the night. We found out the wait for a healthy child in China is over 4 years. That seemed too long for us so I started looking into other countries. Every time, we came to a dead end... something didn't feel right. Then I felt God telling us to adopt a special needs child from China (with the wait being substantially shorter). To be honest, my first answer was No. I displaced the thought for several months. Then I read a blog about an adopted Chinese special needs child with congenital heart disease and I thought about my Gramps' weak heart. I also thought about my aunt who had undergone open heart surgery as an infant. I felt the tugging at my own heart. God was telling me He would equip us. He would teach us. He would provide for us. I gently approached the topic with Alex and he agreed to look into it more.

As we continued our fertility treatments, we decided to slowly pursue adoption while we waited. By the end of August, we realized we had some big decisions to make. After months of praying, we decided to stop fertility treatments in October and completely pursue adoption. We still pray for a miracle and hope that one day God blesses us with more biological children, but we realize God's plan for us right now is to adopt! We are so excited about adding another little one to our family! We are working through an agency in Evansville that specializes in International adoption and our plan is to adopt a little girl with special needs from China. "Special Needs" includes children with minor, correctable issues and also those with chronic, more complex medical issues.

Our girls can't wait to meet their baby sister! They are already discussing names, drawing pictures of her (with black hair) and praying for her.

I'll share more of our story as it unfolds!! Please be praying for our little girl as there's a good chance she has already been born and is waiting on us!

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:
to look after orphans and widows in their distress. James 1:27