Jenkins, Sara and Parker's Adoption Story

Our Adoption Story…

Our adoption story begins in August of 2001. This is when we got married, and the very next month began trying to start our family. We had known for years that we wanted desperately to have a house full of children, and although we didn’t feel that we were 100% ready to be parents, we had a feeling that it may take “a while” to get pregnant. We had no idea how long “a while” would actually be, and the heartache we would have to go through to finally have a child to love.

In the beginning we thought that having “our” child was important. We thought it would be more meaningful to raise a child that we made together. It was only after 4 years of struggles, 2 IVF’s, 11 artificial inseminations and 2 miscarriages that we started to question whether biology was really that important. We finally came to realize that genetics was not what we needed, but to raise a child together was all that really mattered. So, while we awaited the results of our final infertility treatment, we began to pursue adoption and actually began our homestudy. Well, the last treatment did result in another doomed pregnancy but we felt a sense of relief and excitement when the fertility clinic called to tell us that our pregnancy had ended in the 6^th week. We were finally going to become parents!! We were going to adopt. We slowly began preparing for the homestudy in June of 2005 and had our first home visit in September. We finally became activated in December of 2005 (we felt that the homestudy process was long and agonizing, but in the end were glad that every last detail had been tended to).

Two weeks after we were activated with American Adoptions, we got a call from the agency that had done our homestudy. They had a situation in which a mother was placing her five month-old son for adoption and she was interested in us to be the parents. We discussed the situation and sadly rejected it. This was hard, as we so badly wanted a baby, but felt that this was not the baby for us and knew that American Adoptions would soon help us bring a child home. Then in deed, we got a call from Ali the very next week with a situation that sounded absolutely perfect, in fact, almost too perfect to be real. There had to be a string attached somewhere. This baby boy was due in two weeks, but could be born any day! We accepted the situation and began working on last minute touches to prepare to actually become parents! We were so very excited yet remained guarded; as we were sure that something terrible would happen (after all, in the last 4 years we had been let down so many times!)

We flew out the day before the scheduled induction and got settled into our home away from home, The Candlewood Suites. Early the next morning, our birth mom was being induced. We finally got to meet her in person just a few short hours before she delivered and it was at that time that we knew that everything was going to be OK.

Our angel was born on January 18, 2006!! He was perfect, his birth mom was perfect, the entire situation was perfect!! We couldn’t have asked for a better experience. The relationship between our son, his birth mother and us was amazing. You could tell that she loved this little baby so much, but acted so selflessly throughout trying to include us in all the hospital decisions and allow us time to bond with our new baby. I felt like his mother the very first moment I held him and was filled with joy, yet I hurt for the woman who had just given birth to him. What an amazing thing that she was doing for him and for us! Due to hospital policy, we had to take custody of our son in the lobby of the hospital after discharge. We wheeled him out and she kissed him goodbye. She later told us that it just felt natural for him to be leaving with us; you can’t imagine how wonderful that was for us to hear. We got to have lunch with her the day before we left for home and this day was harder as we knew this was the final goodbye. We gave hugs, gave our thanks and shed our tears with her in the entry- way of a huge shopping mall! ICPC approval came in that afternoon and we were on a plane the next day with our nine day old son, headed home!

Our son is now 5 months old and not a day goes by that I don’t think of our adoption experience and how absolutely amazing his birth mother is to have chosen this life for him. We share pictures and letters frequently via email with her as I cannot imagine not wanting to share this little angel with the woman who made it possible for us to become parents! Part of me wishes that we would have found adoption sooner than we did and saved some heartache, but if we had, we would not have our son and I can’t imagine my life without him. After all those years, everything finally makes sense and it was all worth it!!

Jenkins, Sara and Parker