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Hi! Looks like this isn't a very high traffic forum, but I'll introduce myself anyway. This will probably be a long post; I tend to be chatty, and I am sooo grateful for the family the Lord has blessed me with! Hubby and I have been married ten years. For the first seven we tried to have a baby. I'm sure many of you understand how frustrating it is when all your friends plan to have their children as they graduate from BYU, stop the pill, and BAM two months later are pregnant, exactly as they planned. I'm sure you understand what it's like to wonder why any rebellious teenager who sneaks out of her parent's home can get pregnant, while a stable, sealed, willing couple living righteously can't. I have wanted to adopt since I was a little girl, but I also wanted to give birth. Everytime we prayed about adoption we got the clear answer "not yet." And yet, we weren't getting pregnant either. Finally I had to have a surgury, and the surgeon warned me to not get pregnant for at least two years afterward (yeah, like that would happen!) We finally felt it was time to contact LDSfs. As soon as we sent in our inital paperwork and scheduled the hs, I became pregnant! My docs wanted me to have an abortion, making very grim predictions of my and my baby's future. The Lord sustained us, however, and that little guy will be three in two months. He is, and was, perfectly healthy. When he was only two months old, I began having the distinct impression that we needed to start the adoption process. Of course this seemed insane, but every time I prayed about it I was sure. So, I broke the news to hubby and got him to pray too. He reluctantly (at first) agreed that this was right. Shortly after coming to this decision, we found out that the pregnancy had caused a heart condition that makes future pregnancy incredibly dangerous for me. I would only gt pregnant again after much fasting and prayer; I really doubt it will ever happen. We spent the next two years searching for the right situation. I was overwhelmed at first, unsure of how in the world we could find our child. We prayed that the child or children meant to be ours would find their way into our home. Nothing seemed quite right. We researched several agencies, looked into every country that allows US adoptions (for a while we really thought it would be Kazakhstan), and looked at pictures of waiting children (we fell in love with one baby boy, but he was not ours). Often we would discuss LDSfs; it seemed the most logical choice. Our friends also kept trrying to convince us to go through them, because a Staff Sergeant in the Air Force and a SAHM aren't exactly rolling in dough. But when we'd pray about it we just knew that this wasn't the path for us, at least right now. Finally, after what seemed like forever, a relative of mine became pregnant with triplets. The minute I found out, I knew these were the ones the Lord intended for our family. Though it is incredibly presumptious to think of another woman's babies as mine before she has asked me to adopt them, I knew they were mine. Hubby felt the same. The birth mother has three children, who live with her ex-husband, and the birth father has three who live with their respective mothers. Both birth parents were living on the street, having been kicked out of a drug program for getting together. The birth mother came to live with us (a triplet pregnancy is and education, let me tell you!) I went to every prenatal appointment, took care of her during her 14 weeks of bedrest, and was in the room for the c-section. I started inducing lactation a couple of months before the birth, and was able to start nursing within an hour of their birth. The babies are miraculously healthy for triplets, especially given their start. They came home from the hospital after only two days, no NICU time at all! They are four months old now, gorgeous boys (two identical, one fraternal), and nursing exclusively. We are a family that draws a lot of stares. Not only do we have multiples, but we are also a mutltiracial family. Hubby, I, and our oldest are white, and the birth father of our trio was black. It is striking and beautiful to see our light skinned, blond haired, blue eyed toddler holiding his brown skinned, dark haired. brown eyed brothers. We are just waiting for the courts to catch up with our hearts and give us a date for the finalization hearing. Then, we just have to wait for word from Salt Lake that we have permission to be sealed. (The birth mother is technically sealed to her ex, even though he is not the bf, and therefore, the trio are technically sealed to her.) One thing I have learned, that I absolutely know, is that we all enter the world, and our families, in the time, manner, and with the genetic heritage we were meant to. I wouldn't ever trade the sons I have and those years of pain for easy fertility and biological children right away. What I have now was worth all of our trials times a million.