The Plan...

We were married in August of 2002, and like most couples, had a grand roadmap laid out for our life. Eric was attending graduate school, I was working full-time to pay the bills, and we both knew we wanted kids as soon as we could get them. Needless to say, our plan didn’t turn out to be “the plan.” We struggled with miscarriages for a few years before moving to Texas in 2005. Our luck didn’t improve with the change of scenery, and we eventually decided to try some options for infertility. Again, no luck. We were at a standstill of what to do next. Sometimes the hopelessness and grief was almost too much to bear. We did some major praying and asking what our next step was. I had always felt that adoption would totally be an option for us – I had several friends and relatives who had adopted and I thought it was great. However, it wasn’t nearly so easy for Eric to jump on the band wagon and feel comfortable with adoption. After quite a few long talks and a lot more prayers, we decided to meet with a social worker to find out more about the process. We met with Julie in early 2007, and even though we hefted a massive stack of paperwork home, didn’t make a whole lot of progress for the next several months. By July, I felt a major urgency to put our paperwork in. We finally got everything pulled together, and in late August we turned in the completed paperwork and were approved a few weeks later. Little did we know our family was about to get a little bigger.

On October 1st, we received a call from Julie where she informed us that there was a baby boy who was about 5 days old, and if we were interested, we were one of two couples the birth mom was thinking about. Can I tell you CRAZY emotions! Our birth mom was thinking it over that night and we would be informed the next morning about her decision. The next several hours were spent trying not to get our hopes up, and after a relatively sleepless night, we both went to work the next morning. We got the call at 11:00 Tuesday morning that we had been chosen to be the parents of this sweet little boy. To intensify the emotional roller coaster, the placement was scheduled for noon the very next day! We cried, celebrated, made calls to family, and made a ridiculous last-minute shopping spree to cover the bare necessities.

The next day started out a little crazy to say the least, but once we got to the placement, it seemed like the whole world simply paused. The only thing that mattered was what was going on in that tiny living room with a sweet birth mom, a precious little boy, and a very humbled and nervous couple. I can’t quite explain the sweet spirit that was in that room that day, but everything just felt… right. They had been calling him “Matthew,” and when they told us that his name meant “Gift from God,” we both felt that no other name could possibly match our thoughts and feelings any better. From that day until today, he truly has been a source of continual joy in our family.

About a year after Matthew came into our family, we started thinking about trying the adoption route again. By December 2008, we were approved again, and were anxiously hoping to expand our little clan. At the end of March, we once again received a call from Julie. This time the birth mom was in another state, and was leaning toward choosing us if all the legal stuff worked out. She was due roughly three weeks from that time, and we enjoyed the novelty of having “so much” notice as we started preparing. I thought often of this sweet girl whom I had not met, but was going through so much in her life and was facing one of the hardest decisions she would ever have to make. My heart truly ached for her. Much to our joy, the call finally came that she had chosen us. About one week later, another call came that she was in labor several days early, which led to some frantic flight reschedules and some record-pace suitcase packing. We were fortunate to be able to meet the birth mother and some members of her family both the day before the placement as well as the day of the placement itself, and I am so thankful for that little bit of extra time. The perfect ending to that particular adventure was that we were able to bring Cannon home – a beautiful baby boy named after the memorable town we stayed during the first week of his life in Oregon.

Life gives us so many chances to learn and grow as plans change. We are so thankful for the amazing blessing it is to have these sweet boys in our home, and to be on the receiving end of hugs, kisses, and tender moments of pure happiness and joy. Adoption has truly blessed our lives and the lives of those around us. We couldn’t have planned it better. :)