And Then There Was One...An Adoption Story

About a lion, a tiger and a giraffe.

Several years ago, Ron and I lost control of our family. We lost control over what our family would look like and when our children would arrive. We lost control over something that's so easy for 90% of the population. We joined the club nobody wants to join. The infertiles. The 10% who can't get pregnant within one year. And even worse,  we would never be pregnant. We were more like 0.000001% of the population!

So we decided we would adopt, but we weren't ready just yet. We had only been married three months after all. We would adopt when we were ready and that would be that.
Even though we had lost control, we hadn't realized it yet.

Four years passed and we finally felt ready to pursue adoption. It didn't take too long to realize it would be much harder than we thought! The paperwork alone takes months. The wait after that, excruciating.

But there was always one thing we did have control over and that was our attitude. We knew we had to find our children and we wouldn't give up, no matter what. We would find them.

One day we were out shopping and we saw the cutest little stuffies. We picked out three and named them the names we wanted to name our children.

Zachary - lion

Emma - tiger

Benjamin - giraffe

In the six months to get approved the first time and the nearly two year wait to find Zachary, there were a lot of times we wanted to give up. During some of those difficult times we would hold the stuffies or look at them.

We played with them.

Even the cat got introduced to the "children."

We mentally made plans for the children those stuffies represented. We knew we'd be childless if we ever gave up and that wasn't acceptable to us. We coped the best we could.
Finally, after a lot of sacrifices we were able to find the perfect little boy for our family.

At placement we gave our little lion stuffy to Zachary's birthmother, Felicia.

We told her the story of the three stuffies and I think it is one of the most appreciated gifts we gave her. During the first year of his life we would take photos of Zachary with the other two stuffies to document how fast he grew.

One month old

Three months old

Felicia also told us she bought a little friend stuffy for Zachary lion and named him Jesse (Zachary's middle name, which she chose for him). We know she appreciated the thoughtfulness of this gift.

Cute pictures I have to share:

Zachy on the move!

 Moody boy. It's hard to be two.

 Seriously, he keeps getting cuter!

As Zachary's one year birthday approached we knew we needed to start our paperwork for our second adoption. There was NO WAY we were going to endure another two year wait! We didn't actually feel ready to adopt again until April; little did we know our little girl would come nine months later. This time it took us seven months to get approved. We checked with agency after agency after agency. After searching almost everyday, we were able to find our Lexi Emma after five months and more personal sacrifice. Just as we did with Zachary lion, we gave Emma tiger to Lexi's birthmother. We also send pictures to her so she can see how Lexi is growing. We know these updates are very much appreciated!

Now, why the title "And then there was one"?

We have one little stuffy left.

Benjamin - giraffe

But right now, we just feel complete. We feel good. We feel busy with two and crazy with two.

There were points in our journey we felt we'd never even be parents - now we're the parents of two adorable children.

We feel blessed!

Lexi one month

She is the sweetest baby!

The smiles melt us.

Don't you just love them?

Moments like these are why I love being a mother; even though it was hard to get here and it's the hardest job I've ever had.

We wouldn't want our lives any other way.