I want to share with you our adoption story. It is a small insight into my family's life and the true reason of why I stockpile. This is the SHORT version?
Our International Adoption Story:
In May 2004 after years of struggling with infertility my husband and I decided to pursue international adoption. After attending several seminar’s and doing research on the Internet we decided to adopt from Guatemala. After completing our home study and collecting all of the documents for our dossier we received US approval and the wait for our baby referral began…that was January of 2005.
On February 3, 2005, we got the call! A baby boy was born on January 6, 2005, and he needed parents to adopt him. Were we interested? I did not sleep for one minute that night with anticipation of the “package”. The next day we received photos and a 5-minute video. We immediately accepted the referral, and the roller coaster ride began!
Here we are on the plane…heading “home” on June 30, 2005.
The wait was terrible…the most miserable and painful time of our lives. As each day passed the only thing that kept me going was the update pictures that we received from our agency each month. However, each update was heart wrenching. Watching our baby grow and change without me there was extremely difficult and heart wrenching. Thank God for my mom and good friends or I would have never gotten through it. My faith in God carried me through. We prayed daily for this child and God granted us what we asked of him.
In April 2005 we visited in country. We had our baby with us for 4 wonderful nights and 5 days and it felt like our family was finally together. However, that visit was bittersweet as it didn’t last long enough, and I left Guatemala devastated that I couldn’t bring our son home with us. The only thing that gave me peace was that I met our son’s foster mother and saw the love and care she had for him and was providing to him in my absence.
Mother's Day 2015
The next three months were full of pain as we waited for the legal hoops to be jumped through. I had two amazing baby showers and they were exciting but painful at the same time. It was a very happy sad time. Full of emotion and a painful wait. There would be good days and bad days.
On June 23, 2005, we got the call! Our adoption process was complete! We booked the first flight to Guatemala and on June 27, 2005, our sweet baby boy was placed in our arms forever! He is now five years’ old and is the joy of our lives. As I reflect on the process and our infertility, I thank God for it (the infertility) each and every day.
Peyton 2018
If it were not for the infertility, we would not have our son and without our son our life would not be complete! I have such wonderful friends that I met through the process that I would not have in my life, and I am truly thankful for each of them (including Shelley). I was given a word of wisdom which at the time I didn’t understand. My caseworker told me it is always darkest before the dawn. At the time I couldn’t understand that advice, but I sure did the day he was placed in arms forever.
Thanks for allowing me to share our story of how our family became a “full circle”. Though I could talk for days about the process in the end it all seems to fade away as I am now just “Peyton’s Mama”. This is my journey to motherhood.
Melissa is a soccer mom who has been married to her best friend for 22 years. She loves sharing recipes, travel reviews and tips that focus on helping busy families make memories.
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