Adoption Awareness Month- My story

With it being adoption awareness month and I think it is important for me to post on something so close to my heart.

As most of you know my life changed in 2006 when we finally made the move to start our adoption. It is something that I had thought about for over 10 years. The seed was planted in my mind and grew in my mind and heart for over 10 years. I was one of those people that watched adoption story on TLC and always took a second glance at the store when I saw what looked to be a family grown through adoption. I never thought my desire to adopt would ever become a reality. For years and years we never seemed to be in the position to make it so. When I had looked into adoption in my early 20's I was drawn to China and went no farther. I knew they had a minimum age limit of 30 years old and thought that applied to all countries (I now know that's not true). I put it on the back burner and out of mind until I was in my 30's. After a tough pregnancy with my third child we thought we were done. A few years later we both decided we wanted one more child.

In 2005 I had a life and death scare that rocked us to our core. I was a week pre-op for a breast reduction and my pre-op blood work came back BAD. The surgeon called me and told me the surgery was off and to get to a DR tomorrow because I was very sick. When I went to the Dr the next day he said my white blood cell count was off the chart and there was only one explanation for it to be this sky high. He told me it was leukemia and the numbers showed I was very sick. I had to get to the oncologist right away. I was shocked. I could not believe this was happening. I was 34 yrs old and my life passed before my eyes. I did not sleep for weeks. I spent all night staring at my 2 yr old and crying because I would not see her grow up. It was the worst weeks of my life. All the things ran through my mind that I had never done and would always regret. All the things I had put on the back burner because I could do them tomorrow or next year. Now it didn't look like there would be a next year. In the mean time the oncologist ran full bodyscans and additional blood work.

Call it a maricle, Call it a lab screw up, We will never know. 2 weeks later my white blood cell count was back in normal range. The oncologist said after months running blood work it had to have been lab error. I did not have leukemia ( We did during the process find large nodules on my thyroid that were potentially cancerous and I had to have half of my Thyroid immediately removed. It was not cancer)

Talk about being handed your life back. During those 2 weeks nothing mattered to me but my family. I felt like going 24 hours a day so I could fill every minute with them. I didn't want to sleep because I knew I could never get those moments back. It didn't matter how much money I had in the bank, what kind of car I drove, how much I weighed or if the bills were paid on time. Talk about getting your priorities straight. Nothing like a near death experience to do it for you.

That is when we decided no more waiting till tomorrow what can be done today. No regrets.

We had been blessed with a generous life and it was our time to give back. Stop talking and start doing. Pay it forward as they would say. There was a child (or two) out there who needed a family and we wanted another child.


If you make a difference to one person, then that one person is enough.
Based on the story by Loren Eisley...

I awoke early, as I often did, just before sunrise to walk by the ocean's edge and greet the new day. As I moved through the misty dawn, I focused on a faint, far away motion. I saw a youth, bending and reaching and flailing arms, dancing on the beach, no doubt in celebration of the perfect day soon to begin. As I approached, I sadly realized that the youth was not dancing to the bay, but rather bending to sift through the debris left by the night's tide, stopping now and then to pick up a starfish and then standing, to heave it back into the sea.
I asked the youth the purpose of the effort. "The tide has washed the starfish onto the beach and they cannot return to the sea by themselves," the youth replied. "When the sun rises, they will die, unless I throw them back to the sea." As the youth explained, I surveyed the vast expanse of beach, strectching in both directions beyond my sight. Starfish littered the shore in numbers beyond calculation. The hopelessness of the youth's plan became clear to me and I countered, "But there are more starfish on this beach than you can ever save before the sun is up. Surely you cannot expect to make a difference." The youth paused briefly to consider my words, bent to pick up a starfish and threw it as far as possible. Turning to me he simply said, "I made a difference to that one."

I left the boy and went home, deep in thought of what the boy had said. I returned to the beach and spent the rest of the day helping the boy throw starfish in to the sea.

Please, If you have ever been drawn to make a difference in a childs life make the move now. Do not wait one more single day. I promise you that your life will be filled with more riches then you could ever imagine.