Why we are choosing adoption.

Alright, so why are we choosing to adopt?

For anyone who doesn't know our long story, I'll try to share it quickly for you. Matt and I have been married since May 2004. In 2008 we found out that I was pregnant, and we were a little shocked but so excited. About a week after finding out I was pregnant, I had an appointment with my doctor and found out that the pregnancy was ectopic and that my fallopian tube had ruptured. I went straight from my doctor's office to check-in at the hospital for emergency surgery. I had been bleeding internally (a lot), and the doctor had to remove the whole tube. We waited about 2 years to start trying, and soon found out we were pregnant again. Almost immediately I felt like I was experiencing similar symptoms (but much milder) to the first pregnancy. I went to the same doctor, but this time there was no obvious sign of another ectopic pregnancy. Within a couple weeks, though, it was confirmed that it was another ectopic pregnancy and I was having another emergency surgery. My second tube had ruptured and was partially removed. This left us with no way to naturally conceive.

Immediately, Matt and I knew that we would not go the IVF (in vitro fertilization) route. We both felt that since there are so many children in need of homes, we would rather adopt children that are already here or on the way. We both just really felt a peace about this decision.

We have considered foster-to-adopt, international, and domestic infant adoption.

We have decided against foster-to-adopt at this time. We both felt that at this time in our lives we didn't want the huge risk of caring for a child for a long period of time and the biological family eventually regaining rights. We also would prefer an infant or toddler, and most programs say that you must be open to a child up to age 5-6.

We really thought that we would pursue international adoption for a long time, but decided that the high cost as well as travel might be prohibitive at this time.

We do not want to rule out the other options forever, but for this time in our lives domestic infant adoption seems like our best option. We are very hopeful!