Jake and Corrie
After struggling with infertility to have our five year old son, we endured infertility again trying for a 2nd child. In November of 2009, as I was literally pulling out of the parking deck of the reproductive specialist in Atlanta for the last day of a failed fertility cycle, my cell phone rang. It was a dear friend, an adoptive mother of 2, telling me that she was starting a business making profiles for hopeful adoptive couples. She asked me if I would come work for her when the business took off.
Adoption was in my family. My mother’s parents had 6 children and fostered for over 20 years—their youngest they’d adopted out of foster care. I had a cousin who adopted a son from Russia and a cousin-in-law who is an adoptee. It wasn’t so important that I parent more biological children— I just wanted to parent again.
When the November 2009 infertility cycle ended, Jake and I decided to take a break from infertility treatments and just wait until fall before deciding what the next step would be. I began to pray that God would tell Jake if adoption was right for our family.
In September of 2010 I got an email from promise686 requesting families to come make meals for the Loaves and Fishes project on October 2, 2010. I nervously asked Jake if we could participate in this event we’d never heard of, with an organization we barely knew anything about, at a church (not our church) over an hour away. Jake said “yes.” We served in a home with Amy Rider and Anna Wells from promise686. They showed us how grants and tax refunds make adoption affordable. Adoption had really been off our list of family planning options because of the financial aspect. Jake had been given 3 pay cuts prior to being laid off while we were doing infertility treatments. Amazingly, as we were driving home that Saturday afternoon from making vegetable stew and cornbread muffins at Loaves and Fishes, Jake said “I think we are supposed to adopt.”
We began to pray about what type of adoption God wanted us to pursue (Domestic, International, Foster to Adopt or Embryo Adoption) and that He’d provide the money. Many of the answers we received were the result of attending various meetings through promise686: Adoption 101, So You are Thinking about Fostering, and IMPACT training. God answered our questions and provided the money all beyond measure over the next several months.
Our daughter, Carah, was born on July 4th, 2011. Her birthmother chose us on Monday, August 1st to parent her baby girl. The agency let us come and pick Carah up in Naples, FL on Thursday, August 4th, 2011— Carah’s one month birthday. From October 2, 2010 the day we said yes to adoption to July 4th, 2011, the day Carah was born, was almost the length of a natural pregnancy.
Our God is bigger than the financial burden of adoption. Take the leap if He is calling you to adopt. Trust Him—He will provide. Our hearts are so full of joy and contentment now that Carah is part of our family. We will be forever grateful that we chose to say yes when God asked us to follow Him on this adoption journey.