Why Adoption? | Reece's Rainbow

Mark and I started trying to have kids of our own back in 2011. After several months of excited anticipation we still weren't pregnant. I scheduled an appointment with a fertility specialist and had several tests done which all came back with no obvious problems. I started taking chlomid and we crossed our fingers.

Nothing.


Nothing.

I like to think of myself as a patient person, but I was going crazy. I learned something important about the medical profession: if you don't press the issue they wont do it for you. I kept wishing they would call me to check in (which I knew was not their job... but I wanted them to take the initiative so I wouldn't have to). I had no idea what to do. So, I finally called the doctors office to see what our next steps were. That was when we had the bright idea to get Mark tested. That was wonderful and not awkward at all ;)

The results came back: Azoospermia. Which is medically defined as "A complete absence of sperm in the semen." Yeah, minor problem.

Next came a couple years of research, meeting with our doctor again, being referred to a specialist, meeting with said specialist and having a general sense of indirection. There are medical options we can pursue. However, they come with a lot of unknowns, no guarantees, and expense. In addition to that it requires very invasive surgery on Mark's part, followed by invasive Invitro treatments on my part. It just didn't feel like the right decision for us.

What did feel much more promising and a better fit for us, was adoption. But what type of adoption? Fostering, Domestic, International? While we knew we were moving in the right direction, we felt a LACK of direction. The only thing we ruled out pretty quickly was fostering due to our lack of parental experience and the emotional roller coaster that comes with the foster system. That left us with International or Domestic adoption. The only thing I felt like I knew we wanted was an infant or newborn baby. Wasn't there someone out there who had a baby they wanted to give us??! We are nice people I promise!!

We met with several wonderful families that had all grown their families through adoption. They offered us a wonderful opportunity to talk to people who knew exactly what we were going through. Of course we have wonderful family and friends who love and support us, but they don't understand the heartbreak of infertility. Our only dilemma was that all of these great adoptive families had adopted years ago through LDS Family Services, which no longer facilitates adoptions.

Enter a year of indecision and constantly feeling a lack of direction. We knew that Heavenly Father was very aware of us and our situation, we just couldn't figure out what His plan was. Little did we know he was just waiting for us to be ready. I know... we were ready YEARS ago. But not for what He had in store for us.

Now that we understand His specific plan for us we can see the wisdom in His timing. I knew I would get to say that someday!! It was just a long time coming!