{Logan, 1 week old...one of my favorite pictures of him}I'm linking up to Kelly's Korner Blog today to share the story of our adoption. I was happy to have the opportunity to relive all of the excitement that we experienced in our adoption journey, so I quickly jumped on board to link-up. If you have time, visit her blog and check out other inspirational adoption stories.
Since we knew before we were married that the chances of us having biological children were slim, we knew that we wanted to adopt. I'm not going to lie, we did struggle with the loss that we experienced when we desperately wanted to be parents and knew that our path would be different than most people. But after hearing others' stories of grief and loss, I would say that we adapted quite well to our path.
After much research, we chose Lutheran Social Services to do our homestudy and facilitate our adoption. Their rule was that the couple had to be married for 2 years before the adoption process could be started. The morning of our second anniversary, December 18, 2006, I called LSS and we started the process. We waited for what seemed like a really long time....
In August 2007, I started traveling for my job. I was gone 3 nights a week for about a year. In the summer of 2008, I became restless waiting and decided to investigate other agencies with which to work. We applied at some other places but before anything could happen, it was August 2008...the project that I was working on had ended along with my travel. The Friday before classes started, August 22, 2008, I received a call about 8:30 a.m. We were going to be parents. A little boy. Due on my birthday, October 6. I think the phone call lasted about a half hour, but I don't remember much of it.
I called Zeb at work and he drove to my office where we closed the door and jumped up and down and squealed and jumped up and down some more. And then we called everyone we could think of.
The next several weeks were spent balancing our emotions of sheer joy and excitement and fear of knowing that anything could happen before the baby was in our home. On the morning of September 30, I received a call that Amanda was in labor. It was the first time that I was told her name. Amanda...one of my favorite names because it's my sister's name!
The day was a long one without any updates. At 3:30, I called our caseworker to check in. She admitted that she was surprised she hadn't heard anything. By 8:30-ish that night, we were sure that something had happened...that Amanda had delivered him, but changed her mind. Bless her heart, she had been in labor that whole time! From 8:30 - 9:00, we cried over what we thought we had lost...until the phone rang. He was born. He was ours.
Amanda graciously stepped aside and let us parent Logan from the beginning and for that, I am forever grateful. If I ever get the chance, that is one thing that I will tell her. We were able to be with him the hospital, and I've been the only mommy he has ever known. She was willing to let us be there that night, but the hospital wouldn't let us come to see him until things were worked out with the caseworker. Those days in the hospital when we were able to have our family be there to welcome Logan were amazing. It was amazing of her to give him to us so completely and let our life together start right away.
Seeing that little boy for the first time is something I'll never forget. I wasn't sure if we were allowed to touch him, so I asked. "Are we allowed to hold him?" "Of course!" the nurses said. I didn't feel like a "mom" right away...But it was perfect. Everything about everything was perfect.
It certainly didn't take long for me to feel like "mom" and for us to bond with the little guy and fall madly, deeply, completely in love with him. And nothing has changed, except we probably love him more and more with every day that passes!
I love talking about our adoption story and I love sharing it with others. If you are interested in talking with me or have questions about adoption, feel free to e-mail me at ajatchley@hotmail.com.
There are so many other little details of our story that make it so evident that God was weaving our story long before we recognized what was going on. Being Logan's parents has been the greatest joy and gift of our life. That little boy made Zeb a father, he made me a mother and he completed our family.
In August 2007, I started traveling for my job. I was gone 3 nights a week for about a year. In the summer of 2008, I became restless waiting and decided to investigate other agencies with which to work. We applied at some other places but before anything could happen, it was August 2008...the project that I was working on had ended along with my travel. The Friday before classes started, August 22, 2008, I received a call about 8:30 a.m. We were going to be parents. A little boy. Due on my birthday, October 6. I think the phone call lasted about a half hour, but I don't remember much of it.
I called Zeb at work and he drove to my office where we closed the door and jumped up and down and squealed and jumped up and down some more. And then we called everyone we could think of.
The next several weeks were spent balancing our emotions of sheer joy and excitement and fear of knowing that anything could happen before the baby was in our home. On the morning of September 30, I received a call that Amanda was in labor. It was the first time that I was told her name. Amanda...one of my favorite names because it's my sister's name!
The day was a long one without any updates. At 3:30, I called our caseworker to check in. She admitted that she was surprised she hadn't heard anything. By 8:30-ish that night, we were sure that something had happened...that Amanda had delivered him, but changed her mind. Bless her heart, she had been in labor that whole time! From 8:30 - 9:00, we cried over what we thought we had lost...until the phone rang. He was born. He was ours.
Amanda graciously stepped aside and let us parent Logan from the beginning and for that, I am forever grateful. If I ever get the chance, that is one thing that I will tell her. We were able to be with him the hospital, and I've been the only mommy he has ever known. She was willing to let us be there that night, but the hospital wouldn't let us come to see him until things were worked out with the caseworker. Those days in the hospital when we were able to have our family be there to welcome Logan were amazing. It was amazing of her to give him to us so completely and let our life together start right away.
Seeing that little boy for the first time is something I'll never forget. I wasn't sure if we were allowed to touch him, so I asked. "Are we allowed to hold him?" "Of course!" the nurses said. I didn't feel like a "mom" right away...But it was perfect. Everything about everything was perfect.
It certainly didn't take long for me to feel like "mom" and for us to bond with the little guy and fall madly, deeply, completely in love with him. And nothing has changed, except we probably love him more and more with every day that passes!
I love talking about our adoption story and I love sharing it with others. If you are interested in talking with me or have questions about adoption, feel free to e-mail me at ajatchley@hotmail.com.
There are so many other little details of our story that make it so evident that God was weaving our story long before we recognized what was going on. Being Logan's parents has been the greatest joy and gift of our life. That little boy made Zeb a father, he made me a mother and he completed our family.
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