In late 2007, after a year of marriage, we found out that we were expecting our first child. We were so excited. My pregnancy was textbook and everything went as planned, until the day of delivery. My delivery was far from textbook and we had many complications. Eli even spent 12 hours in NICU after he was born. It was a frightening and traumatic experience, one that I really did not want to go through again. In my mind, I was done having children.
But God knew better and in late 2009, Aaron and I found out we were expecting again. My pregnancy with Sophia was far from easy and we made the decision that after I gave birth, I would have my tubes tied. We almost lost Sophia early on in the pregnancy and my labor and delivery was very difficult. Sophia was under a lot of stress and we kept losing her heartbeat. I also experienced some complications post-delivery, and then that afternoon, my tubes were tied.
Having my tubes tied was not a decision that Aaron and I came to lightly. We thought long and hard and prayed even longer and harder, but in the end we were at peace with our decision. As we consider both of my previous pregnancies and deliveries, we honestly believed that we would not make it through another pregnancy.
The decision to have my tubes tied did not mean Aaron and I did not want more children, it simply meant that we did not want to be pregnant again. Over the past few years, since the birth of our daughter, we have talked about adoption many times, but it was always something for the future. We watched as my sister and her husband adopted their first son and then later as my parents adopted my youngest sister. Our extended family was growing through adoption and we were just waiting for our time.
Earlier this summer, Aaron told me that he was ready for another child. This confession sparked many conversations and we realized that we wanted to start really planning to adopt. Our goal is to be in a place that we can start the paperwork no later than next summer (2015). Aaron and I began doing research and making plans.
As most people know, adoption can be an expensive endeavor and we want to begin raising the funds for that now. We need to cover the adoption fees along with preparing our house for home studies (this includes finishing the remodel in our daughter's room and purchasing at least one more twin bed) and we also need to purchase a larger vehicle as my Vibe will not be able to fit 3 kids comfortably in the backseat. Aaron and I believe that we will need about $30,000 to cover all of these costs.
So this is where all of the people out in the world can come in! We have set up a Facebook page to share all of our fundraising endeavors. You can find the page at: https://www.facebook.com/helpthetantsadopt. We have also set up a Go Fund Me page which can be found at: http://www.gofundme.com/ddh5wc.
Finally we have started our first official fundraiser. We are selling boxes of hand-crafted greeting cards through Cards for a Cause. Each box costs $30 and contains 30 cards (that's only $1 a card). $13 of every box sold will go directly into our adoption fund. There are three box options, 2 all occasion boxes and 1 kids box.
If you would like to order a box of greeting cards, you can do so through my PayPal account.
