Eric & I have been together over 13 years. We will be married 9 of those on 11/16. We've been together since high school. After we got married, we decided to wait a couple of years before starting a family. After 2 years went by, we decided that we wanted to try to start a family. We tried to get pregnant for several years before going to a fertility specialist for some help. We tried several unsuccessful treatments before we decided that we didn't want to continue there. We took a few more months off and made the decision to adopt. Adoption had been on my heart and mind for years, but we had worried that we would never be able to afford to adopt. I had been researching all kinds of adoption information for the last couple of years. The more people that I got to know and talked to about their adoption experiences, I felt so much more at ease that we would be able to adopt as well.
We made the decision in August 2010 to apply to Holt. We prayed that if we were accepted that God was pointing us down the path that we were meant to take. We received a phone call very shortly after letting us know that we were approved. I requested the files for a little girl and a little boy just a couple of weeks after being accepted. We had to turn down both of those files, but since then, an awesome thing has happened. I am now friends with the little girls mom on Facebook and I've met the little boys mother through our agency's bulletin board! I can now follow along with both these children as they grow. The third file I requested was our sweet boy's. It took our pediatrician a couple of weeks to review his file and get back with me about her professional opinion of his special needs. We were the only family that requested to move forward with his adoption, so we didn't have to go against any other family in front of the committee. We had an over the phone interview and after answering many questions about Landon's special needs and how we would take care of him and how we could provide care for his possible special needs. We had our over the phone interview on 11/16 and were told on 11/17 that we had a son! That moment changed our lives forever. I went for weeks worrying and wondering, is he really ours? I even emailed and asked the girl who did our interview if he was really ours. Nothing really felt final until we received his legal paperwork, which didn't come until January because our social worker took an additional month and a half to turn in our approved home study. With the exception of the wait, the paperwork is probably the toughest part of the adoption process. That and getting things done in a timely manner (or timely in my opinion).
Fast forward a year later....We are a very, very happy family of three and I cannot imagine life without Landon. I can't say enough how much of a blessing this child is. He is the sweetest, most perfect little boy we could have ever dreamed of. God knew exactly what he was doing when he ordained this little boy as our son. I encourage you that if God is pulling at your heart about adoption. Listen. You'll be glad you did. I'd be happy to talk or answer any questions at all if someone is interested in adoption. It is something that God has definitely laid upon my heart and my life is completely blessed because of it.
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