2003 - Hubs and I tied the knot. We were ridiculously young.
2006 - Samantha entered the family and made her stamp on the world as the easiest baby and toddler ever. She got here with the aid of fertility drugs and a pregnancy hard to enough to make me quit my job. Attempted pre-term labor stopped at 28 and 29 weeks, and continual persistent nausea and contractions until the moment she was out, at 39 weeks. Docs said my crummy uterus was a champ for holding out.
2008 - Again with some minor reproductive medicine, Cookie Monster joined the family after a mind-blowingly bad pregnancy. Hyperemesis gravidarum, several hospitalizations and misery were ended within moments of him being out of my body. Vowed to never be pregnant again. But we wanted more children.
February 2009 - We began a journey into international adoption that had been brewing in our minds and hearts for a several years. (I had in fact, filled out some paperwork while on bed rest for Cookie Monster's incubation)
October, 2009 - We finished all our paperwork and sent our dossier to Ethiopia and began The Wait.
January, 2010 - I became sick and we were shocked by an unexpected (due to past horrific pregnancies and fertility treatments) pregnancy. Adoption file pulled. On hold. Tears. Vomit. PICC line. Bed rest, bi-weekly nursing care at home, babysitters and friends taking care of my kids. Hospitalizations. Dreaming of Ethiopia.
March 25th, 2010 - Call from adoption agency. “Hold” status not computed by the orphanage in Ethiopia. Matched with baby. This was the most shocking “Call” anyone has ever gotten in the history of waiting for The Call. We had to decide if agency should call orphanage directors and say “there’s been a mistake, this family is on hold.” Or, could we consider accepting a referral at this time? Lots of sleeplessness, discussion, and prayers.
March 27th, 2010 accepted referral of four-month-old baby boy from Ethiopia. Wondered how on earth we were going to do this.
April 30th, 2010 we passed court and became legal parents of Tsega.
June 4th, 2010 we both traveled to Ethiopia to meet and bring home our little man. Our oldest was 4, son was 2, and Tsega was 6 months. I was 26.5 weeks pregnant. Days before the trip a tear in my placenta was seen in an ultra sound. They didn't forbid me to go saying "it is tiny, and on the opposite side of the uterus as the pregnancy."
June 12th, 2010 we arrived home jet lagged and happy.
June 14th, 2010 Forty eight hours later, I woke in the middle of the night with the knowledge we were in trouble. My water broke three months early.
June 14th, 2010 I was rushed by ambulance to a hospital with a level four NICU and was put on bed rest to keep the baby in a few more days. Our new son had only joined our family and been home for two days and his mother was taken away. This was the pits.
June 19th, 2010 Baby Brady was born at 28 weeks. He cried briefly when he was delivered, and so did I because it meant he had working lungs. He was intubated, and the long road to growth and healing began. This was also no picnic.
October 22nd, 2010 Baby Brady comes home for good after having been in four different hospitals, with a g-tube to help him eat.
Today, a family of six. Learning how to exist together and love and grow. Thankful for the great privilege it is to parent such wonderful children.
The first time all the kids met each other when Brady was 8 weeks old and out of an incubator
2006 - Samantha entered the family and made her stamp on the world as the easiest baby and toddler ever. She got here with the aid of fertility drugs and a pregnancy hard to enough to make me quit my job. Attempted pre-term labor stopped at 28 and 29 weeks, and continual persistent nausea and contractions until the moment she was out, at 39 weeks. Docs said my crummy uterus was a champ for holding out.
2008 - Again with some minor reproductive medicine, Cookie Monster joined the family after a mind-blowingly bad pregnancy. Hyperemesis gravidarum, several hospitalizations and misery were ended within moments of him being out of my body. Vowed to never be pregnant again. But we wanted more children.
February 2009 - We began a journey into international adoption that had been brewing in our minds and hearts for a several years. (I had in fact, filled out some paperwork while on bed rest for Cookie Monster's incubation)
October, 2009 - We finished all our paperwork and sent our dossier to Ethiopia and began The Wait.
January, 2010 - I became sick and we were shocked by an unexpected (due to past horrific pregnancies and fertility treatments) pregnancy. Adoption file pulled. On hold. Tears. Vomit. PICC line. Bed rest, bi-weekly nursing care at home, babysitters and friends taking care of my kids. Hospitalizations. Dreaming of Ethiopia.
March 25th, 2010 - Call from adoption agency. “Hold” status not computed by the orphanage in Ethiopia. Matched with baby. This was the most shocking “Call” anyone has ever gotten in the history of waiting for The Call. We had to decide if agency should call orphanage directors and say “there’s been a mistake, this family is on hold.” Or, could we consider accepting a referral at this time? Lots of sleeplessness, discussion, and prayers.
March 27th, 2010 accepted referral of four-month-old baby boy from Ethiopia. Wondered how on earth we were going to do this.
April 30th, 2010 we passed court and became legal parents of Tsega.
June 4th, 2010 we both traveled to Ethiopia to meet and bring home our little man. Our oldest was 4, son was 2, and Tsega was 6 months. I was 26.5 weeks pregnant. Days before the trip a tear in my placenta was seen in an ultra sound. They didn't forbid me to go saying "it is tiny, and on the opposite side of the uterus as the pregnancy."
June 12th, 2010 we arrived home jet lagged and happy.
June 14th, 2010 Forty eight hours later, I woke in the middle of the night with the knowledge we were in trouble. My water broke three months early.
June 14th, 2010 I was rushed by ambulance to a hospital with a level four NICU and was put on bed rest to keep the baby in a few more days. Our new son had only joined our family and been home for two days and his mother was taken away. This was the pits.
June 19th, 2010 Baby Brady was born at 28 weeks. He cried briefly when he was delivered, and so did I because it meant he had working lungs. He was intubated, and the long road to growth and healing began. This was also no picnic.
October 22nd, 2010 Baby Brady comes home for good after having been in four different hospitals, with a g-tube to help him eat.
Today, a family of six. Learning how to exist together and love and grow. Thankful for the great privilege it is to parent such wonderful children.
The first time all the kids met each other when Brady was 8 weeks old and out of an incubator
**Update! 3,000 diapers, spilled bowls of cheerios and tantrums and kisses and hugs and bloody lips and songs and bedtime stories and scratched backs and loads of laundry later...
January 2012: ball starts rolling for our second Ethiopian adoption.
February 2012: half way through home study, spy two sisters on a waiting child list. We got a really good feeling, but had to do some homework, some soul searching, some prayer and some more paperwork
April 12th, 2012: Accepted a referral for the two girlies from Ethiopia, home study completed two days later.
May 1st, 2012: Dossier completed, authenticated by Embassy in DC, shipped to Ethiopia
June 24th 2012: Pass our court hearing, the girls are legally ours, we meet our girls, bond and have to leave them...
September 17th, 2012: Pass our US Embassy appointment, the girls leave orphanage forever.
September 22, 2012: Arrive home in the US, forever starts today.
Three days after the girls arrived here in the US, our first family picture.
