When I got married four years ago, I would never have imagined where I'd be at today. I envisioned that by this point, I'd have at least one child - maybe two - under my belt. After all, that's the next step after marriage, right?
Yet here I sit, writing on this blog about the fact that I am waiting to be blessed with a child. I'll spare you the gory details, but the story in a nutshell - about a year into our marriage, we began trying to conceive. After a year of trying on our own with no success, we consulted a fertility clinic. Countless tests, one surgery, six cycles of fertility treatment, and thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket medical expenses later, we still were sitting with a big fat nothing in the baby realm. My primary clue that it was time to give up? When I arrived for my appointments the last couple months, the nurses would say, "Oh, it's you again?" Point taken.
After that point, the decision to adopt wasn't all that difficult. During our engagement, and early in our marriage, I had entertained the idea that I might like to adopt rather than have biological children. My husband had a strong preference for having biological children - as he said, it would be "a little bit of you and a little bit of me" and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that's what I wanted too. But seeing as how that doesn't seem a viable option, returning to my original plan to adopt was a no-brainer.
We've been in the waiting pool at our adoption agency for a little over a year now. We wait every day for the email or phone call that will change our lives, letting us know a little blessing is on its way. It could be any day - today, tomorrow, or three years from now (but please don't let it be three years from now!). And in the meantime, we're trying to remember the other blessings we have in life. We hope you'll join us on our journey!
