Beginning of the Journey

So here is my first post... sorry it is pretty long!!!

Well... hopefully we are going to be getting a little baby boy next month. We started the whole adoption process January of 2010. We met with some counselors from Bethany Christian Services for a question and answer meeting. After talking to them we really felt this was the agency we wanted to go with on our new journey.

Before we get to the whole adoption process... I just wanted to tell everybody why we decided to go this route. After having Mikey October 30, 2004 I found out I had developed gallstones during my pregnancy. Three weeks after I had him I went to the ER with extreme abdominal pain. The doctors ended up doing surgery to remove my gallbladder and gallstones. They ended up having to do an ERCP and with that irritated my pancreas. After almost a whole year of being in the hospital, living at my parents house with my personal nurse (my mom) and a ton of prayer and what I feel is a miracle, I got better. That started our new life.

So here we are, Phillip, me, and Mikey a happy family but kinda small. Growing up being the youngest of 5, I have always wanted a big family.  We discussed having another baby and asked several doctors opinions. The answers I got were, "I think you'll be fine getting pregnant, I'm just not sure you can handle the pregnancy.", "I think you can handle the pregnancy but you might have a hard time getting pregnant.", "I don't want to tell you yes and I dont' want to tell you no." We were not really sure where to go with that. I ended up having a pancreatic attack and was finally told that I shouldn't have anymore.

It took a long time to understand why I couldn't have anymore biological children. I wrestled with God asking him why this happened and just prayed that some miraculous way I would get pregnant (pretty wishful praying!!). We looked into surrogacy but quickly found out how much it was and decided to think more about adoption. We both really had to come to terms about adopting. What is funny is that we actually talked about this when we had dated and both had been very open to it. I had just always thought I would have my own and then later down the road maybe adopt. God obviously had different plans. So after some research and recommendations we contacted Bethany Christian Services.

Like I said before we met with them and instantly knew we wanted to work with them. We ended up going to the classes and making a profile book. That was one of the reasons we really liked Bethany. You make a profile book for the birthmoms to look at and they choose you.

We turned in our book and got a call three weeks later saying that we had been picked and the mom was due in July. We were so thrilled and COULD NOT believe we had already been chosen. We met with the mom and then we had to wait. When we met this mom we both said it was not like what we expected Neither of us said anything negative,,, just nothing really. We didn't know what to say. We found in June that she changed her mind because it was a girl and decided to parent. We were heartbroken for about 5 minutes. The whole time we had been praying for a peace about everything and the peace poured over us... drenched up in fact. We started talking about how neither of us were very comfortable with her and felt like she wanted to be more in our lives that what we agreed to. So even with a huge disappointment we felt that God was in control and that was just not the baby for us.

We were told that they wanted to show our profile book to two different birthmoms the end of July. One of the girls wanted to look at families in Florida and Georgia. So we waited. One girl decided to parent and they hadn't heard from the other girl. It had been right around 2 months and still nothing so we just figured she wasn't going to choose anyone. Well... Thursday, September 9 we got a phone call saying that Kelsey had picked us!!! We were so shocked!!! She had all the profiles for 2 months and she picked us!! As of right now we know that she is 17. She just graduated high school and wants to go to college. Her parents are very supportive. They told her is she wanted to keep the baby they would help her out and she is the one who said she didn't think is was possible. As soon as she found out she has been to every doctors appointment and has had all the prenatal care. No drugs. No alcohol. Completely healthy!! She is not with the father but he knows she is doing adoption. To top it all off... she has already started going to counseling! That is a great sign and shows that she is trying to prepare herself as much as possible. Of course with every adoption... she can change her mind up until she signs the papers which is 1 to 2 days after birth.

We meet Kelsey on Friday, September 24. She is due October 24.  Please keep us in your prayers and I will keep you updated!!