Our Story

Dear child of mine,

I write this so that you may one day know the love that brought you into our home. I haven't met you yet, but I love you more than words can possibly describe. You will be our son or daughter that will make me a mom and your father, well, a dad. We've been praying for you for so long and anxiously await the time that you will join our lives.

One day, when you're old enough to understand and old enough to read this, you may ask how you came into our lives. While I don't have the answers as of yet (we're currently waiting for your birth mom to choose us to be your forever family), I can tell you the story that has been written for you so far. I'll start with my story.

Life doesn't happen the way you plan it. I know that well, because I'm a type A-call-me-Kate-Gosselin-things-must-go-as-I-plan-planner. I always have been like that. Ask my mother!


In high school, my schedule called for me to go to USC and then on to law school. Yep, I was going to make the big bucks as a lawyer and thrive in the excitement of the courtroom. High school friends who suggested that I be a teacher were met with my scoff of "Yeah, right--high school kids would bug me. Besides, I want to make the big bucks."



I should have known. God, had a better, more awesome plan in store for me. I ended up going to a small (but well respected) Christian college in the Northwest. Plans to be a lawyer quickly faded when I found the call of the stage beckoning me. Once again, God gently nudged me in His direction: I added a theatre major to my course-load and eventually went on to become a high school theatre teacher.


It took this thick skull of mine a few times to get it right: when God beckons me towards a certain direction, things go smoothly. Anytime I try to do things my way, on my time, with my ever-present plans and ideals, I end up facing a wall. That's not to say that things NEVER go as planned, but it's happened enough that I know to follow Him and listen when He whispers in my ear.

Right--back to my idealistic plans. After getting swept off of my feet (thank you Jay) and getting married in a whirlwind nine months, I started to dream of the day when we would get pregnant and expand on our family. Okay, truth be told? I started to dream of the day I would be a mom way before I got married. The plan was to get married at 25 to an awesome, cute Christian guy who made me laugh (check, check, and triple check), be married for three years and then get pregnant.

We got two dogs and "practiced" parenting. Maynerd and Roxy are our two dogs. They've taught Jay patience, and they've taught me that I need to grow a bigger backbone when staring into those deep, brown eyes.

I started to dip my toes into the waters of adoption and ended up falling in head first. I suggested adoption to Jay casually one evening, and to my amazement, he was on board. Way more on board than I was at that point. I joined another online message group, this time one for adoptive parents. I made the trip over to my own parents' house, and shared our plans with them. I had so been looking forward to the day I would tell them that I was pregnant, and while this wasn't an easy announcement to make, I knew that it was what was in store for our future family. God would take care of the details. My prayers were answered: my parents were supportive of us (if caught off guard at first) in every which way.


A week into researching adoption, we got a phone call from a wonderful woman who runs the adoption message board. There was a baby available in Texas. Were we interested? I don't think my jaw left the table the entire phone conversation. Jay and I prayed about it, and agreed that while it was soon and the situation that this boy came with was less than ideal, we would proceed in our plans to adopt him. We were paired with a local adoption agency, who promptly began our extremely expedited homestudy.

We were listening to God's call for us to be adoptive parents at last. The strenuous infertility road turned to a very smooth, very quick, adoption path. We were going to be parents. Dreams of seeing a child with "our" features and characteristics were replaced with the dreams of having a child to call our own. And you were the answer to our dreams!


Three weeks into the home study, while our family was at our house transforming our home office into a nursery, we got another phone call: situation surrounding the baby in Texas no longer allowed for him to be adopted. Without getting into specifics, the birthmom (who was not in a position to parent the child herself) decided against adoption, and her own parents would be taking care of the child. I don't know how to explain it, but sadness was not an emotion I was feeling at receiving this news. Rather, I was filled with peace. I know that God placed that little baby in our lives to force us to start the homestudy sooner than we had originally anticipated. I'm convinced that it is because our child is waiting for us...and that would be you, my dear little one!

We had to switch gears with the adoption agency and jump through a few more hoops, but still, we finished our home study in a record 6 weeks. We officially became available to adopt just before Thanksgiving of 2008. Our profile is currently being shown to prospective birth parents, and we hope to be matched (soon) with you--our child that was meant to be our son or daughter!

I hope to continue to post as we venture on the journey we never 'planned' to take: adoption. It's so much better than anything we could ever have dreamed. God's plan is a perfect plan; I can't imagine now another way to expand our family.

And that, dear child of mine, is our story. Our story is also your story. Without these twists and turns, you will have never found your way into our family. May God continue to bless the path that led us straight to you!