Patience in the Midst of Longing: Our Adoption Story

My name is Cora and my husband’s name is James. We have been blessed to adopt a little boy whom we named Dawson and this is our story. At the time of this writing, he is 4 years old. We adopted him domestically in 2009 and it is a closed adoption, which was the birth parents’ choice.

We were able to get him when he was a day old. He is amazing and is the light in our lives! We are so grateful for him every day. The piece of advice I would give would be that we need to trust in the Lord and realize He has a plan for us. Even if it seems He has forgotten about us, He hasn’t. Our timing is not His timing, even though I was anxious to become a mother. I know now that I was meant to have my sweet Dawson, and we were meant to get him specifically – not just any child.

Let me back up a little and tell you about our amazing journey through adoption. James and I were married in Salt Lake City in November of 2000. Before we were married, we were told by a doctor that we would not be able to conceive a child. But, of course, being young and naive, we thought we could still have a chance of having a biological child. We had many failed pregnancy tests, which was such a hard trial to face. I felt like it was shattering all of the hopes and dreams that we’d had since we were young. I am sure that many people have felt this deep despair.

After much counseling and prayer, we decided to try a sperm donor. We did end up getting pregnant for the first time but ultimately miscarried at six weeks. This was such a horrible time in our lives, but I am grateful looking back that I was at least pregnant once in my life. We did try two more times to get pregnant, but it didn’t work. The cycle of getting our hopes up only to be let down again was very painful. The drama was such an emotional roller coaster that we didn’t want to follow that path anymore. The story of adoption sounded wonderful to us.

I’m so glad we did decide to go with adoption even though it felt at times that we were never going to be chosen. The wait was the worst part of it all. We tried to think of things to do in hopes of hurrying up the process, but, for the most part, it was out of our hands. All we could do was wait.

One day, while I was on my break at work (luckily I was on my break), I was contacted and told a baby boy had been born that morning. Were we interested? I, of course, said YES! And I immediately left work. We were told that the agency was deciding between us and another couple. We waited a little longer and got a few important items (a car seat, stroller, etc.). By 6 p.m., we got a call that we were going to be parents of a beautiful little boy!

We were so excited! I remember each of us walking around our house calling everyone we knew! We then tried to get some sleep that night, but it was so hard knowing our sweet son was in the hospital not too far away. This situation was unusual since the birth parents knew they wanted to place him for adoption but never sought out an agency. The birth mother had him within ten minutes of getting to the hospital. At first, to avoid some of the pain of separation, they did not want to see him. But they did decide to hold him before they left, which made them cry. It must have been the hardest thing they would ever do. I am so eternally grateful for their sacrifice because I know they were thinking of him and not themselves. They wanted to give him something they could not give him at that time.

We arrived at the hospital around 10 a.m. and got to see our sweet boy for the first time. It was truly a spiritual experience and so sweet, I will never forget it. We ended up having my parents with us, and we had nine people in the room. It was a wonderful, wonderful day. We took him home after two hours, and he was so perfect. I know that as we have been chosen to raise him, we have been given a precious and important role that we will not take for granted.

Another interesting part of our story is that we had a full-bred Weimeraner dog that we had bred a couple of weeks prior and we, of course, had no way of knowing that we were going to get a baby. Well, it was pretty funny our son was born on that Thursday, and our dog had her eleven puppies exactly one week later. We were able to sell the puppies and made enough money for me to stay home from work for twelve weeks. What a blessing!

Our adoption story is so special to us and we are forever grateful for the blessing that it is to be adoptive parents. It is truly a sacred calling. And I know that as long as we are putting our trust in God, and if we don’t give up, He remembers us and understands the pain we go through. He has not forgotten you. He has not forsaken you. He loves you and He will bless you at the right timing.

If you enjoyed this story you can download the FREE eBook Adopting A Baby In The US by clicking here.