Dianne, Tom and Eric's Story

It is hard to know where our story begins – so first let me tell you about ‘us’. We are “Tom and Dianne” and like many couples always dreamed of having a family of our own. We learned early in our marriage that this was going to be a ‘challenge’ for us, so we immediately started down the path of dealing with infertility – and after a year of unsuccessful treatments, we decided to give IVF a try. Ironically, in 2003 as we started our first round of IVF, our friends were adopting their son through American Adoptions. As we began IVF this little boy gave us ‘hope’ that no matter what happened, we would have a family some day. Our first (and only) round of IVF resulted in pregnancy – of triplets!!! Unfortunately, the pregnancy did not have a good outcome. As a “side effect” of the pregnancy/fertility drugs I became very ill and was hospitalized almost the entire pregnancy. Had I not suffered a miscarriage (at about 11 weeks), it is likely I would have not survived the illness. It took about 3 months to fully recover physically and at that point we decided it was time to ‘take a break’ and spend a year not doing ‘anything’ in our attempt to have a family. We’d spent almost our entire marriage trying to have a baby and knew we needed time to simply enjoy our lives before we moved forward and made any major decisions about what to do next. We were heartbroken over losing our babies – but hopeful that our next step would be with American Adoptions. We never lost hope thanks to that beautiful little boy born to our friends in 2003!

In early 2004 we decided to just ‘send’ for the Adoption applications, for ‘when we were ready’. So we kept them on hand, familiarized ourselves with the ‘process’ and waited until the time ‘felt’ right to begin. We knew this would also be an emotional journey and we wanted to be fully ready for whatever bumps and curves might be thrown our way. By the end of 2004/early 2005 we began by doing the background checks/fingerprints and then moved on to our Home Study. We finally completed our APQ and Profile and were activated in early July 2005. Our Adoption Journey had begun and we were ready for whatever would come our way!!

On September 30^th 2005 we got ‘the call’ – it was a situation we were asked to consider over the weekend. Five days later we were on a plane, about to see our little boy be ‘born’! We were with the birth mom before/after and during the birth (Tom even ‘cut the cord’). The next day she signed the papers, but the following morning, one hour before the baby was going to be released to us from the hospital we received a call at our hotel – the birth mom changed her mind. She was going to ‘parent’ the baby. Needless to say we were devastated – we could not wait to get home and went directly to the airport. Although we were heartbroken – we were very worried about this little baby boy. We knew there would be another baby for us – but we already loved this baby and couldn’t help but worry about what his future would be like – (would he be safe, would he be warm, would he have enough clothes, food, etc). Although his birth mom loves him with all her heart, she was not in a position to provide for him.

With the help and support of our family, friends and the staff at American Adoptions we were determined to move forward and wait for the ‘right’ match for us. We were quickly reactivated and knew we would get past the disappointment and heartbreak – we had been through worse and were confident that our future held good things for us. So we went on with our lives, enjoyed the fall weather, Thanksgiving and the Holiday Season as we always had. We were looking forward to celebrating the New Year with our friends and were hopeful that 2006 would be a wonderful year for us!

Then on Christmas Day 2005 we had the shock of our lives. If was 9:30pm and we had just returned home from celebrating a happy, boisterous Christmas with Tom’s family. We were anxious to kick back and relax after a busy day with family. When we walked in the door we heard the answering machine beeping. Thinking it was my mom – I hit ‘play’ and began to hang up my coat when I realized the voice I heard was not my mom, but Lisa Lewis from American Adoptions. I walked over to the answering machine and could not believe what I was hearing. The birth mom from our prior ‘match’ had changed her mind and again wanted to place her baby boy with us. The baby was placed in foster care five days earlier – the time was now “up” for her to change her mind (on Christmas night!) – it was official – he was ours!! He was waiting for us to come and get him! We had NO idea any of this was going on. American Adoptions did not want us to be disappointed again – so we didn’t know anything was happening until it was official. Less than 48 hours later we were holding our son and he has been with us ever since!! Our adoption is now ‘final’ and we are getting ready to celebrate our first Easter with our son!!

So we were right - 2006 has been a wonderful year for us – and we spent the New Year celebrating with our beautiful little boy!!! Of course our journey has had a few bumps and curves, like we expected – but we are so grateful to everyone at American Adoptions for all they have done to make our dreams come true. We are eternally grateful to the many people involved that have done so much for us and for our little boy. And we will always be especially grateful to his “birth mom” who has put her faith in us to raise this beautiful little boy. We hope that our son has inherited her courage, strength and ability to love without limits.

We truly feel our little boy is a miracle and will always be the most precious gift of our lives. It is just amazing he came to us on Christmas Day! When we came home with him in early January we felt that the North Star was shining over our house. For weeks there was an endless stream of visitors – family, friends and neighbors – wanting to see the baby and bring him gifts. He is truly a blessing to us all and surrounded by so much love. His precious smile never fails to warm our hearts.

Thank you to Lisa, Wade, Megan S., Megan R., Jane, Susan, Drew, Peggie, Laurie, Caryn and the entire staff at American Adoptions!

Dianne and Tom (and Eric!!!)