Adoption: the Kahler Family

Deanna: "I'll never forget the day our daughter was born. It was winter and there was fresh coating of snow on the grass and trees. As my husband and I gazed out into our backyard that morning while eating breakfast, we were filled with many emotions - hope, fear, excitement, anticipation and a touch of sadness. We wondered, Was our dream to become parents finally going to come true? After two miscarriages and more than two years waiting to adopt, it was sometimes hard to imagine finally having a child. We also knew that our daughter's birth mom would be experiencing many emotions as well, and didn't know for sure if she would ultimately decide to parent or not. We were putting our hearts on the line. But we knew it was worth the risk.
 

Later that afternoon as we held our daughter for the first time, it was a overwhelming experience. She was so beautiful and precious. And although we knew the adoption wasn't a sure thing, we loved her immediately and knew that our lives would be forever changed just by meeting her. Our lives did indeed change. We did become her parents. She has amazed us, blessed us and enriched our lives with her enthusiastic personality, her zest for life and her compassion. We love her with all our hearts and feel lucky everyday for the wonderful gift of adoption. All of the pain and struggles we went through finally led us to our precious daughter -- the child who was meant to be with us all along."

For more information about Deanna, please visit www.deannakahler.com. You can also read about her journey to motherhood in her book, "From Pain to Parenthood." 

Adoption: the Lipscomb Family

  

We started our journey together from very different places. I grew up in the Netherlands and he grew up in the United States. When I was twenty-two, we both found ourselves in Canada doing relief work and desiring to serve the community. Needless to say, we fell in love and made every effort to end up together.

After a year of mostly being apart, writing letters back and forth, endless chat conversations and paperwork a mile thick filed with the government, I was able to move to America and marry the man of my dreams!

After moving, we found a wonderful church together and got plugged in while Thomas finished up school. After finishing, Thomas was offered a job as a graphic designer at the church and I have been working as a K-1 teacher at a private school.

We bought our first home in 2011 with a big backyard in a quiet, friendly neighborhood. We love animals and rescued a cat as well as a puppy from local shelters.

We always wanted children and did not wait before we started trying. It was exciting, fun and for a while was “our little secret”! We talked about adopting very early on in our marriage and knew that even if we would have gotten pregnant right away, we would adopt.

Now we’re four years down the road, still unable able to conceive, and have finally put down our plan for God’s plan and decided: We’re adopting a baby!
I have to say that it’s a little overwhelming to think of all the things that need to happen before we will hold our little one in our arms but we know that it will be worth it! God has been brought us together despite the immigration and a long distance relationship and we know with Him, we can overcome this as well.

So, why are we telling you guys all of this? Because we know that we can’t do this alone. But, we also know that great things can happen when a community comes together! So far we’ve experienced amazing things but we are still far off from being able to hold our little one in our arms.

So how can you help? Here are a few ways you can be a part of our journey:

• Pray that we can raise the money to bring our baby home, for a birth mother to select us as parents for her child, for patience during this journey and wisdom to be great parents.
• Donate through GoFundMe.com/LipscombAdoption
• Purchase any product from our website today! I make handmade jewelry and my husband is also offering services. All profits will go towards funding our adoption.
• Like us on Facebook, heart my Etsy shop, pin us on Pinterest, or even BETTER – tell your friends about us!

When we began we needed 2000 people to donate $20.00, now we only need 1850 more people to join us in our journey! Will you make your donation today?

Etsy shop: lousje.etsy.com

fb: www.facebook.com/Lousjedesigns

Instagram: @marlouspot

Blog: www.lousjedesigns.com

Adoption: the Rabens Family

This is our story of God's unique plan for our family. 

Clay and I were told that we might have difficulty conceiving a biological child. Once we decided to start trying though, I had a dream that I was pregnant. I woke up and immediately took a pregnancy test and was shocked that it was positive.  

I had bleeding throughout the pregnancy, but overall felt great. I loved being pregnant.  

To make a long story short, my delivery did not go well at all. It seemed like anything that could go wrong did. I eventually had to have an emergency c-section. Click here to read the complete story of Madison's birth and see pictures. Although the day Madison was born was one of the happiest of my life, it was also one of the saddest because that is the day that I had to have an emergency hysterectomy. I spent 3 days in the ICU and was not able to hold my sweet baby girl. 

Clay and I always knew that we wanted more children and just prayed that God would reveal His plan for our family. We have always been open to adoption and had planned on adopting even before we knew that I was no longer going to be able to carry children of my own. When we moved to Florida, we discovered an Adoption Center right around the corner from our house. We contacted them and began the adoption process. Later we found out that we began the process almost to the day that Jocelyn was born.  

After waiting six months, we got a phone call from the adoption agency on a Thursday asking us if we would like to submit our information to a birth family that had a 6 month old baby girl. I called Clay and we decided that we would submit our information and prayed that God's will would be done for this little girl. We got a phone call the following morning telling us that the birth family selected us and would like to meet us on Sunday. 

We met Ms. Keisha (Jocelyn's birthmother), Grandma Cathy (Jocelyn's birth grandmother) and Brittani Ann (Jocelyn's half sister). The birth family signed the adoption papers that day and after waiting the 72 waiting period, we got to bring Jocelyn home that Thursday.  

We now have two beautiful girls that are only a year and two weeks apart in age.  They are best friends and sisters forever.  Click here to read a letter that Jocelyn's birthmother wrote us following our meeting.  God has blessed our family through the miracle of birth and adoption. We can't imagine our family without both of our precious girls. One grew in my tummy and one grew in my heart. 

Thank you Lord for your perfect plan for our family.

Adoption: the Adams Family

Ashley 20, Justin 19 and adopted children: Amber 21, Robin 20, Katie 18, Robert 17 Iwryn 16, Misty 14 

(We are currently trying to adopt Harmoni 2 & Zeekey 5 months)

This is our family now. We adopted 6 siblings six years ago. With our 2 biological children, that gives us 8! It has always been the dream of my husband and myself to adopt.  I love my life now. It is so joyful and fun!

Adoption: the Meyer Family

Bethany: My boys are my miracles. We "adopted" them sometime during the summer of 2003 and they were born the next April. Technically, my boys aren't adopted. Another couple donated them, as embryos, to my clinic's embryo donation program. After four years of failed infertility treatments and desperately wanting to be parents, my husband and I were starting to research adoption agencies. However, I still hadn't given up the dream of being pregnant. During our last IVF cycle with our genetic embryos I had heard from my nurse that they offered an embryo donation program and asked if I was interested in pursuing this option if this last transfer failed. The day after we received the negative results from my pregnancy test I called the nurse in charge of the donation program. I went to the office later that day and picked up the profiles of embryos that were available, quickly researched them, picked a first and second option and called in with my choice. My first choice had just been taken by another couple, but my second choice was still available. Within a month I was ready for my first transfer. That transfer failed, but I had one more chance left - 4 embryos left, which only 2 survived the thaw - the 2 that would become my twin boys. I called them "my miracles" earlier, but they are truly God's miracles. He had beautifully orchestrated every detail in my journey to become of mom. I cannot look at my boys without being eternally grateful to the One who gave them to me.

Month of November

 

In honor of National Adoption Awareness Month, I am hoping to implement two very special things, both of which YOU may be able to help with.

 

Firstly ... Because of Isaac is trying to find 30 people who will commit to donate $1 a day for the month of November. That's a $30 donation! We just started advertising this today and already have 6 people committed. Please leave a comment or send me an email at information@becauseofisaac.org if you would like to be one of these 30 people!

 

Secondly ... I am hoping to feature a family-a-day whose life was touched by adoption. This can be written from a child, parent, grandparent, or even a friend! Please send your entries to me at flakymn@hotmail.com. Entries should include a picture and 1-2 paragraphs detailing your experience with adoption.

Reader question on adoption

I am currently in my 3rd IVF attempt, and thank God I'm feeling at peace. If this round doesn't work, (even though, we have another IVF cycle that we can do) we are going to start the adoption process. I guess my question for you, is where to start with the adoption process. With so many agencies out there, it gets pretty overwhelming. Any agencies you can recommend? I appreciate your help!

I did a post entitled: Beginner's Adoption Guide a few years ago that I think answers this question for this reader, providing the basics of adoption and where to get started. In specifically addressing her agency question, I always think that word-of-mouth is the best way to go.

I had friends research agencies to oblivion. In my case, I quickly "fell in love" with Bethany Christian Services for domestic or international adoptions. We also were using America World Adoption for our China adoption.

If anyone have any other adoption questions that I do not address in my Beginner's Adoption Guide, I'd be happy to answer them!