A Road Less Traveled....

In February, Nate and I embarked upon a journey that was sure to be a "road less traveled." Nate's cousin, who works with a social worker, told us about a young woman who was in search of a family to adopt her unborn child. Her circumstance was unique. The baby was a result of a rape and she was in jail. She had two options, either to give the baby up to the state or to choose a family to adopt her baby.
She had already met one family who was interested in adopting the baby. She didn’t have a good feeling about them. They had asked her not to have an epidural and told her that if there was anything wrong with the baby, they would not go through with the adoption.

When Nate’s cousin had told us about the situation we immediately knew we would be more than willing to meet the Mother. You see, I have always wanted to adopt. My Mother was raped and chose to keep me. My Father adopted me from the get go. They chose me. Growing up, I had a complex-an identity crisis. I felt like I was a mistake. My parents were wonderful in loving me and reassuring me that I wasn’t. Even with all the love and support, I struggled. But sometimes our hardships, trials, and infirmities can be beneficial in helping others through their own struggles. This, I feel to be true. I know the experiences I have had have brought me to a point in my life where I can be of help to others. I always wanted to get the point where I could help others instead of others helping me. My whole life I have been blessed with angels and support. My family and friends are most precious to me. There is not much I wouldn’t do for them. So, naturally I was drawn to this Mother.

We consented to meet her. Our first visit to the jail was wonderful. We had both Nate’s cousin and the case worker with us. The moment I saw her I fell in love with her. She had been through a lot and we learned that she currently had two other children who were in the custody of her husband and in-laws. They were 1 ½ and 2 ½ years old. The oldest is a girl and her name is Amari and Josiah is her younger brother. She has not seen either of her children for about 8 months.

We hit it off with birth mother from the get go. She told us that she wanted to the adoption closed. We told her that we respected that but that she would always know where to find us if she wanted a picture or update. We talked about where we grew up and what kind of music we liked. We talked about her hobbies. Everything went well.
The case worker asked her if she wanted me in the delivery room and the birth mother said yes. She wanted me to be there.

We told her we would visit her weekly and she was excited about that.
After that night, we began the process to become adoptive parents. We got a lawyer and I started to process to produce milk. I know, you are probably asking yourself if you read what I just wrote right. I assure you, you did  I wanted to give the baby the best start to live that I could and although I wasn’t carrying him for the 9 months, I would do what I could.