familiesOur Adoption Stories: Christine and Kyle
It's difficult to say exactly WHEN our adoption story began. Truthfully, I think it's always been a part of our lives. A fact in our lives that has always been there, we just didn't always know it. Kyle grew up the youngest of three children. I grew up an only child for most of my childhood. Having children was never a question for me. I always said that I definitely wanted two, probably three. When Kyle and I met, I made my feelings known. Luckily, he felt the same way.
Getting pregnant with our daughter Tori was certainly not a problem. Three years later, becoming pregnant with our son Brayden was equally easy. Getting pregnant for us was the easy part. Staying pregnant was the difficult part. Although I was blessed to never suffer a miscarriage, in order to avoid premature deliveries, I was placed on bed rest at 7 months with our daughter and 4 months with our son. YUCK!!! My doctor advised that due to my increasingly difficult pregnancies, it would be in the best interest of my health and the health of my unborn babies to not risk another pregnancy. We took his advice to heart and decided (verbally) that two children was enough. We were blessed with two healthy children-a girl and a boy, what more could we ask for, right?
Many years passed. During that time, my heart kept up this nagging feeling. I just didn't feel "done". Once, not long after we moved into our new house, I was reading our local newspaper. There was an article about Chinese baby girls and how more and more Americans were adopting them, about how many were in orphanages, abandoned, and yes, even killed. My heart just ached. I looked at that photo of that little girl and I just knew I could love another daughter, born from my body or not, I knew I could. At that time, though, I quickly put the idea of actually going through an adoption out of my mind. We had just built a new house, our daughter was 3 1/2 and our son only about 10 mos. old. Our lives were busy. Our lives were full enough. (At least that's what I told myself). Plus, I thought, it must be really difficult to do something like that. It must be REALLY EXPENSIVE!!!
Then finally, about a year ago, our daughter was 9 and our son 6, my husband and I both realized that although we felt very blessed to have the family we have, our family just did not feel "complete". We knew that another child was what we both had been wanting for a while. Now that question was, do I risk another pregnancy or do we do what a very good friend and co-worker of mine did and adopt?
We tried for about 5 months to conceive a child. I did not become pregnant. Although 5 months seems like not very long, it seemed like an eternity to us. After all, it didn't take that long the first 2 times!! I went to see my doctor. He looked me in the eyes and said, "Are you crazy?" "What did I tell you 7 years ago?" Needless to say, I felt rather foolish. My husband and I believe in God. We believe that everything happens for a reason. And that everything that does happen is part of God's master plan. I prayed hard. I believe that I did not get pregnant because God had our plan all figured out. We didn't, but He did. One night, I looked at Kyle and I said that I felt that we were to go to China. That our child is there. He agreed. My very good friend had returned from China not long before that with her beautiful new daughter. She had a wonderful experience and pointed us in the direction of an agency representative to speak to. I called the rep the Monday before Thanksgiving 03. She mailed us the application. We told our families over Thanksgiving. EVERYONE was very excited. By the middle of February 04 all of our dossier paper chase was complete. Our LID is Feb 27, 2004. My social worker said I probably set a world record for the fastest dossier completion ever. I was just very determined.
Now we await the referral of our new daughter, Rylee Elizabeth. Our other 2 children are very excited. Sometimes it feels very surreal to me. And other times, I can't believe we didn't do it sooner. We love her already. We haven't seen her, or touched her, or heard her little voice, but just as much as I loved my first two babies growing inside of me, I love her. We are a very lucky family. We do not take it for granted. We feel so fortunate to be able to experience the wonderful joys of both birth and adoption. And although the steps through both are so very different, the LOVE is absolutely the same.
