Obsession: Babies

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Yesterday morning I received an email from one of my followers, Lesli, asking about the free advertising I am offering right now.  She and her husband are trying to adopt a child from Ethiopia, and she was wondering if I would be willing to advertise her fund raising efforts on my blog.

She said, "I don't know if this is up your alley as far as advertising, but we're willing to try anything to help raise the funds for our adoption."

This struck a chord with me.

Eight years ago I got pregnant for the first time.  Nathan and I were so excited, and immediately started planning that child's future.  We were thinking of names... wondering if it would be a girl or a boy... hoping its due date of December 26th would not make it a Christmas baby.

But just a few days later I started bleeding heavily, and knew in an instant that that baby was gone.

We had only just begun trying to get pregnant, but I had so many friends experiencing infertility and I begged God to spare us from that roller coaster.

Our doctor told us that since we were so early in the pregnancy I would not need a D & C, and that technically I could get pregnant as soon as my next cycle.  

Which I did.

That pregnancy was such a relief, and I vividly remember thanking God that I was never going to have to walk the long and painful road of infertility.

A year after Beau was born we decided to start trying for a second baby.  We wanted four, so it seemed to us like we better whip 'em out!

God had different plans for our family.

The next six years were spent going from one doctor's appointment to the next... from one surgery to the next... all in an effort to figure out why my young and seemingly healthy body was not working.

About a year and a half ago I went in for another laparoscopy, with hopes that my doctor could remove one diseased fallopian tube in order to increase the chance of success with my third and final IVF treatment.

{If none of this terminology is familiar to you... thank God right now that you have not had to walk this road.}

During the surgery my doctor had to make the painful decision to remove both of my fallopian tubes.  It turned out that they were both so severely diseased, that not only were they non-functioning, but my doctor believed they were actually preventing the embryos we were implanting through IVF from nestling into my uterus.

The next month we had our last IVF treatment with our last two remaining embryos.

It was unsuccessful.

We were done.

We had always hoped to adopt a baby, even before we knew it would be our only option.

Only at that point, we were out of money, out of energy, and ready to close the door.

Then I met an amazing woman that has four biological children and eleven adopted children.  

Yes, I typed that correctly... eleven... which makes fifteen {in case math is not your strong suit}.

Several months ago, as she was getting ready to adopt number fifteen, we were lounging by the pool talking adoption stories. 

Long story short... she offered to pay for us to adopt a baby.

There is so much more to the story that I will share with you in the months to come, but the bottom line is that this friend and her husband are covering all of our adoption costs except for the cost of the Home Study and traveling expenses to pick up our baby.

Unfortunately, before we can even begin the process, we need to come up with the $2000+ for the Home Study.

So when I got this email from Lesli... I thought, "Today is the day."

I devised a plan to try to raise our funds, and sent out an email asking for my friends and sponsors to partner with me.  I am already totally blown away by the response I have gotten in the last 18 hours.  

Tomorrow I will share this plan with you.

Today, I would love, love, love it if you would check out Lesli's story, and consider helping her bring her baby home.

"Ryan and I have always known that we wanted to adopt. In fact, we started talking about it in college and haven't stopped talking about it yet :) After a lot of thinking and praying, we decided to start the adoption process this time last year by first pursuing the foster-to-adopt program through our state's social services office. In July 2009, we were approved as foster/adoptive parents and were just waiting for a placement of children. In October 2009, we were surprised yet blessed to welcome 2 brothers, ages 13 years and 5 months at the time, into our family. The boys have been living with us ever since and the last 8 months have been a HUGE lesson for us in parenting, each other and loving others well. However, much to our dismay, we have been told that it is not possible for us to adopt the boys as the state plans on returning them to their biological mom sometime this fall. We are heartbroken over the thought of losing the boys but at the same time are so thankful to have the time we've had with them. They have blessed us more than we could ever bless them!

So, after riding the roller coaster of foster care for the last few months, we have prayerfully decided to pursue international adoption, and more specifically, adoption from Ethiopia!! In March 2010, we were accepted into the Ethiopian adoption program and we are now well on our way to bringing home our kiddo from Ethiopia! Our paperwork was submitted last week so now we are just waiting :) In the meantime, we have been busy fundraising to help offset the $25,000+ of expenses we are expecting to incur for the adoption. Our hope is to bring our newest member of our family home in late 2010 or early 2011."

To help Lesli and Ryan, please visit Lesli's blog and read more about her adoption efforts, then go to her shop and purchase a t-shirt.  

I just did.