Personal Adoption Story

We came to adoption after years of infertility treatments and heartbreak, but determined to have a baby – and a sibling for our (8 year old) son. We took care of our homestudy and all the paperwork for the agency and then we waited. A year went by and it was time to update our homestudy. On the day we had the appointment with our social worker I was feeling somewhat down since so much time had gone by without anything happening. When the phone rang and it was Tosha from the agency, I didn’t think anything of it. I thought she called about updating our papers so I was extra surprised when she told us we had a match! We were chosen by a young couple in college, who were expecting a baby in 5 months. Needless to say, we were thrilled!

Tosha and liz (our liaison at the agency) had warned us the next few months could be a roller coaster ride but they supported us and the birthparents in a great way and just made it a wonderful experience. I know some people are nervous about a long wait like that, afraid the birthparents might change their minds, but it was actually nice to have some time to get ready and to get to know the birthparents through letters and phonecalls. We turned our guestroom into a baby room, thought about names and were very excited about this match.

Ten days before the due date the phone rang early in the morning: labor had started! The next few hours were a funny mad scramble of packing, booking flights, making work and school arrangements – and then we were off! Eight hours later we met the birthparents, and held our newborn daughter in our arms. It’s hard to put into words what we felt, joy, gratitude, and above all a feeling that this was meant to be.

As I am writing this I can’t believe it’s been over a year that we got to take our daughter home. She is 15 months old now, walking and talking, developing quite a strong will and a great sense of humor. She’s is happy and healthy and it’s wonderful to see the bond she and her brother have created. We are grateful to the agency for making this happen and to the birthparents for making such a courageous decision. We can’t imagine our lives without her anymore!

I hope this letter helped you on your way to adoption and I wish you the same positive experience we had. It’s a long road but so worth it! Good luck!

Sincerely,

Petra and David