Adoption ♥

"Adopting a child will be one of the most important decisions you make during your lifetime, as well as possibly being the single biggest decision in the life of the child. Study it out in your minds, then seek a confirmation of the Spirit through fasting and prayer. With all your hearts, counsel with the Lord."

                     NOVEMBER IS NATIONAL ADOPTION AWARENESS MONTH!!! 

I would like to share, for this blog post, my aunt's story in adopting her two daughters, in her own words.

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Finding out that, as a couple, you are infertile, is a devastating moment. Hopes and dreams are destroyed and Faith is tested. Giving birth to children and wanting a forever family is a righteous desire. When is doesn't happen and you accept it will NEVER happen, many things may happen. This is what happened to me: I felt broken, alienated from church, family and friends.

I had been married in 1992 and for 2 1/2 years, had had every test possible performed on me, only to find out in the end that it was my ex-husband that was infertile. I am the type of person that can quickly accept a diagnosis, and move on to a solution. He was not. 

After being married for another 2 1/2 years, we finally started the adoption process. The amount of paperwork was staggering! This was before everything was done online. Writing letters to potential birth mothers and making picture collages was nerve wracking. I second guessed everything I did. Every sentence, every picture. And then there was the wait.... Year after year.

In May, 2002, we found out there was an anonymous friend of my ex-husband's family that wanted to help us get a baby. He couldn't believe it was taking to so long with LDS Family Services. He offered to pay for an adoption if we went international, where it is pretty much guaranteed you end up with a child. We graciously accepted and quickly started international paperwork to adopt from China. Many things were already ready and only needed to be updated.

Miracles really do happen, because in September 2002, 4 months after we had decided to go ahead with the international adoption, we finally heard from a birth mother who had chosen us to adopt her baby. We continued with BOTH adoptions after that. 

Grace was born in Utah in January 2003. We were to go to China in the Fall of 2003, but the outbreak of SARS happened in China and all adoptions stopped for 6 months.

Megan was born in March of 2003, and once the paperwork was moving again, we went to China in May 2004 to pick her up. At that time, Grace was 16 months old and Megan was 14 months old.

They are both now almost 13 years old.

I often think of the trials and struggles through those years. I am now ALMOST (but not quite!) grateful for them. It eventually did build my Faith, made me more empathetic, and gained the knowledge that God knows who I am and what I feel. He loves me and will always comfort me in my times of need. 

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I am so grateful for my aunt and her faith, courage, and determination during her journey to becoming a mother. I am also extremely grateful for my cousins. Now that I am going to school at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg, I am close to them, and get to see them and hang out with them often! They are amazing, smart, talented, funny girls who I know will grow up to be amazing women just like their mother!

Finally, here is an awesome Mormon Message about a young woman who chose adoption for her daughter.