Wedding
Hello everyone…I guess you heard, Steve and I are adopting a child from Russia. For those of you who don’t know us…here is the story of how we got here!
Steve and I were married in September of 2006 after being together for a few years. He was my neighbor in a close knit town in South Jersey. I feel in love with him immediately. He made me laugh, he is sensitive, loving, and would do anything for anyone. We tried to conceive shortly after our marriage and by the end of 2007 were pretty frustrated. We chose not to pursue fertility or invitro, or any medical way of conception for our own personal reasons. We continued looking into adoption. By Christmas we just let things go and let nature take its course.
2008
Happy New Year! Superbowl comes along…my favorite team loses (yes people, I am a Patriots fan!!!)…Steve is an Eagles fan…we decide to adopt a dog. We visited shelters monthly or more since 2006 when we lost our dog Buster. In February 2008 we fell in love with a big hairy dog we named Max and brought him home. Unfortunately he was very ill, made our other dog ill (kennel cough) and after $700 in vet bills and many scary visits to the vet ER, they were fine. Valentine’s Day was awesome!!! I had rose petals throughout the house, we ate dinner, enjoyed each other’s company…it was romantic and beautiful. Low and behold, February 29th rolls around and my period did not arrive (very unusual), so I decided to take a test. We were helping our friends move, B&A, in Philly; she had an apartment that seemed to be 100 floors up (I’m lazy sometimes) and I told her I was a day late…fortunately she had a test and I took it. The instructions were not in there and it was sort of inconclusive…so I trampled down the stairs, walked to the pharmacy, and picked up a digital test that read out Pregnant/Not Pregnant (Steve and I love digital gadgets). What you know, it came up positive! I opened the window and screamed out “WE’RE PREGNANT”!!! My husband was so excited, he ran up, hugged and kissed me and we cried in happiness!!! Meanwhile the entire neighborhood heard my annoucement! I immediately called my family, doctor, everyone!!!
A few weeks later, I went to my 8 week ultrasound the end of March. The heartbeat showed up and everything was awesome! Then four more weeks went by and our lives drastically changed forever. At my 12 week ultrasound, I had my mom, dad, and husband all in the room since we would get to see our baby that day. They all watched the screen intently and we say our child for the first time, his arms were flailing, and my husband commented he was a drummer! Again, we cried with joy! The tech said the size was normal, heart rate was good, BUT there was fluid around the baby and I would need to speak to the doctor. We had no idea what she meant, no idea what was going on, nothing. We waited and waited in the bad news room, and our doctor came in and said we had to go see a specialist at the ATU unit of the hospital. She said the baby had a Cystic Hygroma. It would take about a week to get an appointment. Long story short, we were in the next morning. It was explained our baby was not to survive. He had swelling, it could be a genetic thing or maybe a heart condition, etc. Too early to tell. We made it clear we were not going to terminate the pregnancy. We love whatever God gives us. Every week for the next 7 weeks was hell; I had an amnio that failed, multiple blood tests (they always miss my veins), we had an ultrasound at least once a week, and every single time a doctor would tell us the baby was going to die. Yet he kept fighting. On June 4th around 5pm I was talking to my best friend Kate on the phone, lying down when I felt our baby kick. I couldn’t believe it…it was not gas, it was a kick and it took my breath away (I was shocked); the baby had not moved position in 3 weeks and now he managed to move enough for me to feel it!!!??!! Then came Week 18 ultrasound two days later. I was very sick through my pregnancy and it was a day I hope to never revisit again. June 6th…my husband’s mother’s birthday (she died when he was 19). Our baby had died, no heartbeat. Honestly I knew it when I saw the ultrasound. As the tech zoomed out quickly we saw his little swollen arm just suspended, floating. We were devastated. A baby we tried so hard to conceive, a baby we loved before we even met him, a baby we’ll never hold. We buried our son, Nathan Henry in June at Calvary Cemetary in Cherry Hill. I won’t go into the horror our doctors put me through, just wanted to summarize this story.
What’s important to know is in 2007 when we had trouble conceiving we began to look into adoption. When we became pregnant we decided to adopt for our second child. As life would go, Steve and I discussed it and decided to adopt…this is where this blog begins. We would like to have two or three children and feel this is best for our future children and us. So here we are.
