A Family Is Love, Not Genetics

My husband and I first met in the 7th grade and became great friends. Ten years later, we were married.  As we embarked on our journey to become parents – things did not go as planned.  After several heart breaking miscarriages, we decided to adopt.  After all, our goal was to be parents. It didn’t matter to us how we got there. A family is love, not genetics!

The foster-to-adopt process can be rocky to say the least. During this process, you have lots and lots of paperwork, visits with social workers, clearances, and lots of other hoops to jump through. Once our homestudy was completed, we thought it would be smooth sailing. In my head, I thought the next day we would get matched! Unfortunately, it does work that way!

Waiting to be matched was the part that was the hardest. During the matching process, you are sent possible matches, photos (it’s hard to not fall in love with that photo), information on the child, and their story. If you decide you would like to be considered for that child, your homestudy is submitted to the matching committee. Here is where they review all of the possible families and decide who is the best fit for the child. I have heard horror stories of family’s waiting years to be matched. But luckily for us, we only had to endure the matching process three times and the third time was a charm for us!

On June 10, 2017, our little love, Noah, was placed in our home. Noah has been the missing piece that we have been waiting for. Life has changed in so many ways and it’s all been AMAZING. Thanks to Noah (and my husband), I celebrated my very first Mother’s Day in May. To commemorate the occasion, my husband surprised me with my own Tiny Tags with Noah’s name on it. That was the icing on the cake! On our official adoption day June, 19, 2018, My husband purchased another Tiny Tags to celebrate us officially becoming a family. The front is engraved with “forever mom” and the back has Noah’s adoption date.

For those struggling to start a family, just know you are not alone! There are many ups and downs and a WHOLE LOT OF WAITING on this journey, but never give up hope because it will happen.

– Katie P.