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| Photo: Taylor Dail Photography |
Adoption has been on my heart since I was 16 years old. I can still remember the day I stood at the airport waiting for a family friend to step off the plane with her daughter from Guatemala. It was the coolest experience and from that day on I knew I wanted to adopt.
Fast forward eight years and I was getting married and embarking on the greatest adventure with my new husband. Craw and I love kids and we both knew that we didn't want to wait long to start a family so we went in to our first year of marriage with the mentality that if we got pregnant, GREAT, if not, no worries! What we didn't realize at the time was that eight months in to our marriage, I would be diagnosed with Crohns disease. Even through the initial diagnosis, starting infusions, and having 2 hospital stays within a month, we still had family planning in the back of our minds- crazy, I know!
Eventually my GI doctor had the discussion with me that we should probably wait at least a year to have a baby in hopes we could get my Crohns under control. My body had already rejected the first medication I was put on and we were starting to try a different medicine in hopes that I would respond to treatment. I was a little down at first but knew that it was probably for the best.
By January of this year, my heart was longing for a baby and Craws was too. This is when the initial talk of adoption started. I had mentioned it plenty of times before and Craw knew it was something that I eventually wanted to do but we both assumed it would be after having biological kids. I approached him to see what his thoughts were on us adopting first and I was immediately hit with a hard- yet nice- NO. Adoption wasn't even a second thought to him. He wanted biological kids first, as did I.
In May, we met with a high risk OB to talk about the risk of Crohns with pregnancy and to see if the long list of medications I was on would be safe for pregnancy. The good news we received was that my medications were safe for pregnancy. The bad news was he thought we should wait as 70% of Crohns patients that have flared within a year of getting pregnant will flare during pregnancy. Having just flared in January, it was obvious now was not the right time. Surprisingly, I left that appointment filled with more hope than I have had in 2.5 years. I assumed I would be devastated at the thought of having to wait but I know for a fact, God was preparing my heart for what was to come.
About a week later, Craw and I were talking and I brought up an adoption story that I had heard about and he mentioned that he felt like God was really working on his heart for adoption. I about fell out on the floor. I couldn't believe it because his answer was such a hard NO five months earlier. What I didn't realize is that God had been working on him during those months and he still wasn't exactly sure but he told me he was going to keep praying about it for at least another month. That is all it took for me to start praying for Craw's YES that very night.
I made sure not to pester him about it because the one thing I have wanted from the beginning was for his YES to be God's YES- not my YES. Does that make sense? I wanted to make sure that it was 100% the path God was leading both of us down and not our own desires taking the drivers seat. The funny thing is, God knows exactly what our desires are and He has an awesome way of making them apart of His plan.
A week later, Craw told me on June 3, 2017 that he wanted us to start the adoption process. He had no clue what the process looked like or how long it would take but he knew that God was calling us to adopt now. It has only been a month and it has already been a crazy awesome adventure. We know the road ahead is going to have some bumps but we are so excited for the journey to come.
I will be back tomorrow to answer some of the adoption questions we have been asked. We LOVE when people ask us questions because it is something we are deeply passionate about. Our prayer is that God will use our story to bring awareness to this beautiful thing called adoption and that it will in return open the door for others to adopt.
"And whoever welcomes one such child in my name, welcomes me."
Matthew 18:5
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