The Journey Begins

March 19 2013

Cal and I have discussed adoption from very early on in our relationship.  I’ve always had an idea that fertility may be an issue for me, and I shared that with him from the onset of our relationship.  Being the wonderful person that he is, Caleb told me that children by adoption would always be an option.

After several months of a fertility drug we conceived Elliott, and he was born in May of 2011.  We were over the moon to have a wonderful fun loving child in our home.  We decided that we would like to have more children, and began the treatments again when Elliott was a year old. 

When we began the process again, we discussed that if we were not pregnant by March we would look into adoption to grow our family instead.  During the second month of fertility drugs we conceived again.  We miscarried our son Ezekiel a month later at 8 weeks pregnant.

The pain of losing our second child was hard to bear.  The loss of our dreams for him and the plans we already had were very hard.  I struggled with the thought of ever trying to conceive again. My grief was, and still is, very real.  Five months after losing our child I realized that in spite of the pain I was thankful for the time we got to spend with our baby.  The road to healing has begun.

March arrived and in the back of my mind the idea that if we had not achieved pregnancy by now we would be looking into adoption kept creeping into the forefront.  I had many reminders to prod me into thinking about adopting children.  One day I was watching a Christmas video with Elliott in which there was a child that had been adopted.  I later watched every bonus feature on the DVD and there was an advertisement about adoption.  I got down on my knees and prayed to God asking him that if had adoption in mind for us, that he would push us further in that direction.  Later that afternoon when I was driving to pick up Cal I heard a song over the radio, by Steven Curtis Chapman (an adoptive father) singing a song about Christians taking care of orphans.  I smiled to myself and said “Thanks God, I’ll see what Cal has to say”.  That evening I blurted out to Cal in the middle of an unrelated conversation “I think we should adopt” He responded with “Ok let’s”.  That started us on the road to growing our family by adoption.

Caleb dropped me off at work the next day and I hopped on the BC Government website to find the steps to adopting a child or children.  I stumbled across the BC Waiting Children Bulletin and began reading all the stories of the children waiting for a home.  My heart broke for these kids and I resolved to do everything I could to provide our home to as many as we can handle. 

I fell in love with a sibling group of four – Jeremy, Desmond, Neil and Leah.  They range in ages from 7 -2.  While financially it is unlikely we could take on four children these are the children I would choose to bring into our house if I could. 

When Cal came to pick me up I had printed all the children’s stories (there are literally hundreds)and handed them to him.  He read through and picked out the children that he felt would best suit our home. He choose a sibling group of two boys 7 & 6 and two girls 7 & 6, as well as a 12 year old girl who loved to travel.  I wish that I could pack them all up and bring them home with us. 

That evening I emailed the waitingchild@bcadoption.ca address, asking them for more information on the adoption process.

Monday morning I had a response which gave me the name and phone number for the adoption support coordinator in our region, as well as additional information on the adoption process.

I called, the local coordinator, on my lunch break.  I had to leave a message and am now waiting her to respond.