Meant To Be
Throughout the month of November, the Brooke and Em blog will be focusing on adoption by sharing a few different stories, angles and personal accounts from some amazing women.
To kick off us off, Angie shares her story in her own words.
"I was 23 and sitting in the OB/GYN's office waiting for the doctor to come in after undergoing an ultrasound. I remember the smell, the black and white checkered floor, and the sounds of voices passing by the door. Minutes earlier, the technician had commented that I had several large cysts on my ovaries that needed immediate attention. Somehow, I just knew what he was going to tell me and my heart was breaking. How was I going to tell my husband that we would, more than likely, not be able to have children? How would I face my family? I felt like a failure, but in that moment of despair, I realized that I needed to look into adoption. Thankfully, my husband agreed and we began looking into the options.
Upon researching adoption, we decided that domestic adoption was not the path we wanted to follow. There was so much competition, so much that could go wrong. We didn't want anyone coming back and trying to take our children from us. So, we began pursuing an international adoption. We found an adoption agency and explored the different areas where children were available to adopt: Russia, Georgia, Africa, India, China. We chose to go with the Republic of Georgia.
It was quite a process. We had to gather and submit inches of documents. We had to attend weekly adoption classes. We had to open our lives up to scrutiny from strangers as to our religious beliefs, our finances, our family, and our discipline philosophy. It was really hard to have strangers judge whether or not we would make good parents. All of this cost money. A LOT of money. We had to get a 2nd mortgage in order to pay all of the fees.
Finally, after many months, we submitted all of the paperwork to the Republic of Georgia and began waiting for a child to be referred. Two months later, the government of the country was overthrown and all adoptions were halted. We were devastated. We had to start all over. We had to choose another country, submit different papers, pay more money, and begin the wait again.
This time, we choose China. This time, things went well. We were referred a beautiful 14 month old little girl! She was so adorable! We only saw her picture for several months until we could get permission to go and get her. It was very scary to become parents thousands of miles away from friends and family. She was so sick and malnourished, but so smart and beautiful. We fell in love with her the first moments we held her. We even survived the 24 hour journey back home with her crying the ENTIRE way!!!
Three years later, we made the same journey to adopt our second beautiful daughter from China. What a miracle they are!!! China has really curtailed their foreign adoption. We were able to get our daughters in this small window where they allowed more adoptions. I know that these girls were always meant to be my kids. I just needed the experience and the faith to go out and find them!!!"
Love Much,
Heather
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