For three years we tried to conceive with the help of expensive fertility treatments. I spent a lot of time on my knees in prayer. Being a mother was a righteous desire and I didn’t understand why I wasn’t able to carry a second child. My daughter ached for a sibling and it was a painful time for our family. We started looking into adoption after our last fertility treatment failed and I quickly fell in love with an idea that, before, was so foreign to me. I heard stories of birth moms and adoptive parents coming together. I thought those stories were so beautiful and I wanted to experience that same love they shared for each other and their child.
We came across Parent Profiles through a Google search and shortly after found out that LDS Family Services was switching its listings from ItsAboutLove.org to Adoption.com as well. I didn’t 
want to waste any time and immediately got our profile up and rolling. We were on the site for a little over 2 weeks when we were matched; I was over the moon! We met the expectant mother and I experienced a love I had never felt for a stranger before. She quickly became my best friend and I was crushed on Mother’s Day when she let me know she had decided to parent. I immediately put our profile back up. My way of healing was to throw myself back into the wait, I didn’t want our birth mother to miss seeing our profile.
On June 10th, just one short month later, I received an email from an expectant parent wanting to talk to us. She was due in less than two months and just as easily as we fell in love with our first match, we fell in love with Sam. I wanted to adopt her AND her son! She had a very rough life and I wanted to give her everything, I wanted to be the family she never had. She didn’t actually choose our family until a week later, after she had talked to a few other couples. I think our match happened solely because of the friendship we developed in those first few days.
We sent texts daily and went to Nashville, Tennessee to meet her family. They were unsure about adoption at first because they had had a negative experience in their family. We assured them adoption had changed in recent years and we believed in a healthy adoption where they would be involved and a part of his life forever. Everything just fell into place after that and I knew this was it.
Our darling son Atlas was born on July 27th. I was in the room with Sam and we bonded over just about everything during those long 24 hours of labor. I wasn’t prepared for the emotions I would feel the moment he came into the world. When he was born I felt so much joy, but also so much heartache. I saw her pain and heartache and it crushed me. However, over the next few days we realized how beautiful this adoption would be. We hardly spent a moment apart and I think Sam realized that we were all a family, she would see him grow up, and everything was exactly how it should be.
We now communicate by sending photos and texts on a regular basis and I get so excited to share moments with her. We are a big happy family and I’ll be grateful for her every day of my life. We are all so lucky.
