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| Photo Credit: Higher Focus Studios |
Joel and Jaime so beautifully followed the Lord's guidance throughout their adoption journey, even through deep waters and grief. I feel grateful to have gotten to know them and to have been their adoption consultant! The way they have loved (and continue to love) their daughter's birth mom is a vivid picture of the deep and faithful love of God. I'm so glad that they wanted to share some of their adoption story with us.
"Patience, trust, endurance, and hope were central in our adoption journey. From the time we both felt the urge to adopt, to the time we brought our daughter home, about four years elapsed. During that time we experienced the birth and, shortly thereafter, the unexpected death of our son, Wesley. When we found out we were expecting Wesley we thought, perhaps, our hopes for adoption had been misplaced, or maybe our timing was off. We were moving toward adoption, but it appeared God had other plans for our family. We had an approved home study, and we were waiting for a baby, but we put all that aside when we found we were expecting our baby boy. Wesley was born after a healthy pregnancy, but passed away due to unexpected complications during childbirth. He was less than two days old."
"We were confused, to put it mildly. To finally reach the point of feeling we were emotionally ready to adopt, only to have those dreams set aside, then to have our baby, the reason we had set those dreams aside, die, was soul rending. We were crushed, and recovery from the loss of our son has been the hardest thing we have ever gone through as a family. We felt, almost as if it were a long-fostered spiritual reflex, that God had a plan and purpose for us, in spite of the valley we were walking through. As time passed, we again began to feel the familiar urges toward adoption."
"Prior to talking to Katie, we had been at a bit of a loss as to how to proceed. Which agency should we choose? Were we doing the things that needed to be done? Were we getting good advice? Working with Katie just made sense for us. When we considered the benefits of being able to present across a network of multiple agencies in multiple states, and having a consultant to walk with us through the process, the choice to contract with Katie was an easy one."
"After the frustrations of presenting again and again, and constantly feeling like we were being rejected, the way our adoption unfolded was absolutely amazing! We were matched with a woman in Louisiana, a mother not much younger than ourselves, who was expecting a little girl. We were guardedly excited when we got that “yes”, but we tried very hard to temper our enthusiasm, and to prepare our hearts for disappointment, should it come."
"Our daughter’s birth mom was gracious in allowing our daughter to room with us as soon as we arrived at the hospital, which was about 4 hours after our daughter was born. Those first couple weeks after birth, while we were waiting for ICPC, were especially significant. We intentionally reached out to our birth mom and we were able to spend time with her on multiple occasions, including a photo session with our daughter. We made the decision to invite her to the photo shoot, knowing it would be the only opportunity any of us would have to photograph her with her newborn baby. The pictures that came from that photo shoot are already unbelievably precious to us, and we’re so glad we invited her into our lives in that way. We hope both we and our daughter can have an open, healthy relationship with her over the years."
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