Growing up adoption never crossed my mind. I didn't ever really think about it. When I met my husband Ben he told me he had always wanted to adopt at least one child. His sister Beth is adopted. Again, I thought ok..... I'm not against it but why?
Life went on. Ben and I decided it was time to start a family. We tried and tried. Nothing. I never anticipated this for myself. Why was this happening to us? Finally, shortly after Christmas we got the news we had waited for. We were pregnant! I was in disbelief. Ben and I immediately shared the news with our families. The baby was to be born Sept 5th.
Then the horror. A couple days later I had unimaginable pain in my abdomen. I suffered an ectopic pregnancy and lost my left fallopian tube and the baby.
The next few years were filled with disappointment after disappointment, going through failed fertility treatments. The doctors finally diagnosed us with unexplained infertility. Why me God? I believe Your will is perfect... but why me? I look back now and why not me?
God was shaping me, preparing my heart for the incredible journey He had planned for me. A "different journey" to motherhood....the journey of adoption. I had no idea the faith it would require.
After much research we decided to pursue an adoption from Russia. The paperwork necessary to complete and international adoption would blow your mind. We finally turned in our completed paperwork and then the wait began.
It was crazy. We were prepared to wait months even years and within 2 weeks of turning in our paperwork we were traveling to Russia to meet our twin daughters Anna and Brynn.
"If we had it to do over again adoption is what we'd choose. We got more than we hoped for the day we adopted you."
The journey was similar to pregnancy in that I anticipated, I worried, I nested, I had baby showers, I got the nursery ready. I did not carry these children in my womb but they could not be more mine. They were always in my heart and the minute I saw them I had an overwhelming peace that we had listened to God and this was His perfect plan.
I felt a "wink" from God when I realized that the day we picked up Anna and Brynn from a Russian orphanage was Sept. 5th, the exact due date of the first baby we lost. I know adoption isn't for everyone but it changed my life.
Christ has adopted each one of us who are Christians as His children. Are we not to do the same?
I laugh now as I look back. Since Anna and Brynn, we have had 2 biological "miracle" babies that we were told we would never have. I am the mother of 4 beautiful daughters. We have gone from no children to four children in 4 years.
I no longer sit and cry in the floor because I don't have children, sometimes I cry because I have so many;) lol!
