There have been so many great changes since we last updated this page!!! First off, we are a family of 3! Wesley Aaron was born on 1/23/14 and we brought him home on 1/26/14. His adoption was finalized by our adoption agency A Baby Step on 5/14/14. Wes is just about to turn 16 months old and we can honestly not remember what life was like before him.
Hey there! Welcome to our blog! I'm Steph, an elementary school teacher, and my husband, Sam (the good-looking one above in that picture), is a mechanic. We make our home on America's east coast and are thrilled to share our story with you.
Now, we didn't always feel so thrilled about the path that God has directed us down. A few years after becoming husband and wife, Sam and I decided to start a family. Crazy, right? So we tried to get pregnant, and tried, and tried, and tried. Welp, not a thing happened. So, we did the logical thing, and tried some more. Again, nothing. At that point, a trip to the doctor was unavoidable. My OB/GYN put me into contact with an infertility specialist. We set up an appointment with her and her team and jumped in to the world of infertility treatments and medications. Through this process, we learned that both my husband and I had health issues that contributed to our inability to conceive. With the help of our infertility doctor and a urologist that specialized in male fertility treatments, we attempted to address both issues. We began by trying various medications during each cycle, followed by almost daily blood work, and a very tight ovulation schedule. When those treatments didn't work, we moved to surgeries and tests to rule out other issues and to try and increase our chances of conceiving naturally. About a year later, we were left with these options: IUI or IVF. Our infertility doctor was not optimistic about our chances with IUI, but she supported our choice. We tried IUI a couple of times, none of which worked. She finally gave us the down and dirty: we weren't going to conceive without IVF. Sam and I sat down, weighed our options, and decided to go for it. We met with an IVF team at a local hospital and had an orientation meeting. Talk about information overload. The nurse that we met with was super nice, super knowledgeable, and addressed all of our concerns. However, we hit a snag. As she gave us a hypothetical situation, we realized that at the end of this process, we would have less than a 50% chance of having any viable eggs/sperm that could be re-implanted after being fertilized. Could we risk that? Did we want to spend tens of thousands of dollars trying to create something that we didn't even know if God wanted us to have? Let me tell you, over the course of the three years that we tried to conceive, I've never felt so many warring emotions. The constant changes between hope and despair were almost unmanageable. Combined with the side effects of some of the infertility medications, the stress and unhappiness in our household permeated into almost every aspect of our lives. Finally, Sam and I had to take a step back. What were we doing? Was this something that God wanted us to do? Were we trying to force this? We prayed. We prayed, and prayed, and prayed.
One day at school, while working with one of my little cherubs (who happens to be adopted), I looked at him and came to the realization that, "I'm supposed to have one of you". Now, at the time, I thought that message meant that we were supposed to have a child with disabilities (I'm a special education teacher). While those words still could mean that, I'm convinced now that the message was given in order to steer us in the direction of adoption. At that point, we stopped working with the infertility specialist, and focused our efforts on researching adoption. The stress that both of us felt under the grueling schedules and treatments for IVF immediately lifted and we both felt at home with our decision.
We started this blog as a way for family and friends to be kept up to date on our adoption journey as we seek to become a forever family for one (or more) of God's children. One of the emotions we felt while going through the beginning stages of infertility treatments was loneliness. It felt like we were the only ones who couldn't have a baby; like we were all alone in suffering and that nobody knew what we were going through. Those assumptions couldn't have been further from the truth. It is through blogs like this, conversations with others, prayer, and the love and support of family and friends that we realized that others have been through this. They've paved the way. We can only hope to be a source of encouragement to others that are moving along these roads...over the hills and through the valleys. Trudging through those highs and lows can seem impossible, but God has a plan. He always does.
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