Hey everyone, I have some exciting news! It's kind of long though. I know I have shared before about our fertility journey and the problems that we've had as a result of Brad's spinal cord injury. To make a long story short, a few months ago we were talking some more about possibly starting a third round of IVF. However, we both just felt like God was telling us to stop, wait on Him, and trust that He is going to work everything out. As hard as it was, that's what we did. Literally two hours later I got a phone call from her doctor about a patient he knew of that wanted to put her baby up for adoption! And we were the first people he thought of. To add to the craziness, she was due in 7 weeks!
Now we have always been open to adoption, and thought there was a good chance that's what we would one day. But we wanted to try everything we could to have our own biological child first. So we weren't on a list, or had met with an agency, or started the process at all. And God just dropped this in our lap. So we prayed about it over the weekend and felt like this was what He was calling us to do.
From that point, He started opening all the doors and everything worked out so easily. The background checks, FBI report, home study, etc. that has to be done usually takes people about a month. We were able to do it in a week! Also, since this would be a private adoption, the cost for an attorney and everything that needed to be done would be a fraction of the cost of going through an agency. And the attorney we used had adopted his two kids so this was really important to him too. The hardest part was knowing that the birth mother had to wait 72 hours after the baby was born before she could sign the consent form or change her mind.
So on Thursday, November 12, our daughter was born at 7:55am, 6lb 14oz, and 18 1/2" long! She was the most beautiful thing we've ever seen. We stayed at the hospital with her during that 72 hours, and brought her home that Sunday. We named her Caroline Grace (Caroline). Having tried for almost four years to have a baby, we have so much more of an appreciation for her and if we had to do it all over again we wouldn't change anything. Adopting her has also given us a new outlook on how we have been adopted into God's family. We are just so thankful that we were given this opportunity.
Because everything happened the way it did, we know that God created her for us and chose us as her parents. It still seems so unreal; after all, we found out about her 7 weeks to the day until her birth. I had a friend mention that it's crazy how we limit God and what He plans to do by placing our prayers in a "box". For example, God, please let this IVF round work, or please let us get pregnant naturally. Had any of these things happened, we wouldn't have our sweet baby Caroline! She also brought up the reality that we are now holding an answered prayer. How amazing!
Lots of people have prayed for this for a long time, and we couldn't have done it without the help and support of our family, friends, and church. I do ask that you continue to pray for Brad's pain, especially now that he has a baby to help take care of and raise. There are times that he literally can't move because of the pain and that worries him about how he's going to deal with it and still be able to help with a baby now. But we are continuing to trust that God will always provide for us and allow him to do what he need to do.
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| Family picture at the hospital |
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| The dogs are slowly adjusting! |
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| We just love her!! |
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| My friend, Jill, made this onesie. There are exactly 1400 days between Brad's accident and Caroline's birthday! God is such a creative God! |
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| She smiled like this twice and we got a picture! |
