Hoping to Adopt Feature!

 

Russ and Kylee

Russ and I met through a mutual friend/cousin and were married almost 6 years ago. Within months of being married, we found out we were pregnant. We were ecstatic! Nine months later, our son, Caden, was born. Because we had Caden so quick we never thought that we were going to have any trouble having children. About a year after our son was born, we tried to get pregnant again. After a few months, we found out we were pregnant. We weren't expecting what was going to happen in a few weeks. I started bleeding and cramping, and discovered that we had a miscarriage. We were devastated!

However, we knew it was a common thing so we tried again. After 5 miscarriages in 2 years and lots of infertility testing, we knew we had to try something different. We had thought about adoption many times, but didn't quite feel it was right for our family. When we got to this point, we knew we really HAD to know what the will of the Lord was for our family before we pursued anything else.

One day while I was reading my patriarchal blessing, a phrase in there totally hit me like a brick. I shared it with Russ and we knew it meant that we were supposed to adopt. We prayed and went to the temple, and we both felt that this was how we are supposed to grow our family. We jumped in with both feet! We went to our orientation meeting and started working on all the paperwork, fingerprints, etc.

The day we got approved to adopt and our profile went "live" we felt like it was a victory over all the heartache, devastation and trial. We knew this was what we are supposed to do and we were doing everything in our power to pursue that route. We held an adoption kick off open house and invited all our family, friends and neighbors to come. It was very helpful for them to learn about adoption, what they can do to help us and to feel comfortable talking to us about it.

We took on the role of playgroup coordinators for our chapter of Families Supporting Adoption (FSA) to help us learn more about adoption and to promote a positive view of adoption in our area. We started the play groups (because they weren't having them before) and after a few activities, we now have a good group that goes almost every time. A few months later, they asked us to serve as the co chairs in our area. 

After talking and praying about it, we decided to take on that role. Now we are serving as the chairs in our area and have just held our 2nd annual area FSA conference and our 1st annual FSA 5K. We love being involved in FSA because it helps us to make great friends whose lives are also blessed with adoption!

We LOVE being parents and experiencing all the joy that children bring to a home! It is so fun to take Caden to the park, the pool, the library (or anywhere for that matter) and to see him learn new things. He ran in the kids fun run after the 5K, and loved it! We love the outdoors and frequently go camping, hiking, geocaching, etc. We are excited to go on our first family backpacking trip soon. Caden is very excited to adopt and frequently asks us when we are going to have a baby. We have been approved just over a year now and are excited for the opportunity to adopt and for Caden to be a big brother.

To learn more about our family, see our adoption blog click here