Blessings

We can't get enough of them!  We love the individual talents and strengths each one of these cute faces bring to our family!  It still gets us sometimes!  We have 5 beautiful, amazing kids and we are so excited to be hoping to adopt one more time.  We thought it would be impossible for us to have a family like this!  We love them so much!  We look at pictures of them after they go to bed and revel in the fact that we are their proud parents.  We want to be the best...because they deserve the best.  They are the reason why we try harder to be better each day....for them...because we love them that much!  They have made me a better mom, a better wife, a better friend.  They have made me who I am.  

Ten years ago we were devastated to learn Michael and I would never have children.  The pain was so intense that I stopped going to church, stopped going to baby showers and even socializing with others.  I found strength with other women who were going through the same thing.  Some days it was difficult to get out of bed, especially on work days.  It was difficult going to work in the NICU caring for babies and wishing that they could be mine.  I had never felt such longing before; such helplessness and sense of loss.  A week after we found out we were sterile we got our adoption packet in the mail.  We never hesitated about adoption.  It was always right for us.  It was the obvious path, it was the right path.  The only reservation we had was that we would never be able to adopt very many times, or we would never be able to adopt a baby at all.  Had we known the future, we would have laughed at ourselves and all that pain and longing would have vanished!  We have had many failed adoptions, multiple scammers, giving a baby back, spoken to over 100 expectant mothers, waited years and years for an adoption opportunity to "stick," shed many tears, spent thousand and thousands of dollars and countless hours on profiles. Ten years later...look at us now.  I still can't believe it sometimes!  How great was our pain....but now, how great is our joy!  The pain was all well worth it!  We can honestly now say that we are so incredibly blessed to not have been able to bear children. What a priceless gift.  Through our open adoptions we have gotten to know 5 amazing birthmoms and birth families whom we will forever love and be grateful for! We thank God every day for this life He has given us.  He turned ashes into gold, our pain into joy, and we will be forever grateful!