Why Adoption?

This seems to be the #1 question we are asked as well as the #1 piece of information we feel like we need to share. I'm not sure why, but it feels like most parents on the path to adoption feel required to share why they want to adopt. I personally feel like a family is born from love and not genetics. Our second child will be just as much our child as our biological son, Gavin. Everyone's journey is different, but love is just simply love!

Steve and I have been married for fifteen years and have an amazingly kind, quirky, witty eight-year old named  Gavin. He has brought so much joy to our family and we have all learned and grown so much together. We always knew in our hearts that we wanted to give Gavin the opportunity to be a big brother someday!

Well, someday turned into maybe never when I got sick in 2009. After multiple hospital stays and medical tests and appointments, I was diagnosed with an autonomic nervous system disorder- Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). POTS turned me from an on-the-go working mom who was able to balance work/life to someone who couldn't walk more than a few feet without fear of passing out. I lost the ability to drive. To sweat. To stand for more than a few minutes. Our world completely changed.

Flash forward several years....it's now 2016. I still have POTS, but have (over the last couple of years) been able to have it 100% managed through lifestyle adjustments, medicine and a strong support system. I am able to balance work/life, sweat, drive and stand for a long time!

The fear of POTS symptoms recurring if I give birth was enough to show us that having a second child naturally was no longer an option for us.

We put the idea of having a second child out of discussions for a couple of years. But, it was always in the back of our minds and something we couldn't stop thinking or talking about.

Everytime we watched Gavin interact with younger children and show so much compassion and kindness, we felt it.
Everytime we celebrated our friends having babies, we felt it.
Everytime we read in the news about celebrities giving birth, we felt it.
Everytime we passed baby items in the store aisles, we felt it.

Finally, the feeling/calling became too big to avoid. I was so scared to bring up the subject of adoption to Steve because I thought he had come to peace with not having a second child. Turns out, I shouldn't have been scared at all! He was feeling the exact same thing!

So with our decision made, we started on the next step of finding out what we needed to do to adopt. What follows is our journey through the confusing, emotion-filled, challenging, extraordinary process!