He flew to Utah a couple weeks after that. We were just hitting it off so well. One night as we were talking he opened up. I knew that he had had cancer and had been through so much a few years earlier. We had talked about that, but this night he went into much more depth--especially the side effects of all the treatments that he had undergone. He told me how he would probably never be able to have biological children and he asked how I felt about adoption. This kind of shocked me, but I cared about Ryan and wanted to pursue this relationship. I wasn't going to end things because of this news. And adoption had always appealed to me.
We continued our long distance relationship. In June, after about 6 weeks of going back and forth, I made the decision to move to Washington to be closer to him. Timing of the blind date was perfect so that I could make this decision. I had recently graduated from BYU and was working at two part time jobs that I could easily leave. In July I moved to Washington. I found a job and in August Ryan proposed.
We were married in October. From the first date to our wedding was not quite 6 months. I swore I would never do that, oh well, he was the right one, at the right time, in the right place.
We went on a cruise for our honeymoon. It was awesome! 
After being married for about 6 months, we both individually decided that it was time to add to our family of two. We knew that we would need to see the fertility specialist and do in-vitro fertilization (IVF) in order to have a baby. As we went through the IVF treatments, we had all the faith in the world that it was going to happen. The doctor told us that there was not a very good chance, but we had faith. Unfortunately it didn’t work. We were completely heartbroken.
Ryan and I filled out all the paperwork and did all the necessary things to get approved for adoption. After we were approved we told everyone that we knew that we were trying to adopt and asked them to help spread the news. A little over a year after we had been approved we got an email from my aunt who lives in another state. She told me that she knew someone that was pregnant and not married and was considering placing her son for adoption. My aunt had shared with her our blog and information. Our sweet Julie read it and felt like we were to be the parents of her little boy. She emailed a couple of days and we read the sweetest words: “I've read your blog and it really touched me. Ever since I found out I was pregnant I never felt much like it was supposed to be mine. Please let me know if you can consider adopting my son. I know you will be a great choice.” We immediately felt so peaceful. We started emailing back and forth and building a relationship with her. We visited her a few weeks later and she immediately felt like family. About 3 months after she contacted us for the first time, she called us to let us know that the baby was going to be born that day. We jumped on the next flight and made it to the hospital a few hours after our sweet baby Lucas was born.
This is a quote from it:
"There’s a quote that says, “Adoption is about stewardship, not ownership.” I love it! Having our kids sealed, I don’t feel like we cut them off from their birth families, but that we’ve added their birth families to our family. We are all stewards of our children. We don’t own them. They are all Heavenly Father’s children. The sealing power is not going to cut off their extended family–it’s like we’re all this big huge family."
"There’s a quote that says, “Adoption is about stewardship, not ownership.” I love it! Having our kids sealed, I don’t feel like we cut them off from their birth families, but that we’ve added their birth families to our family. We are all stewards of our children. We don’t own them. They are all Heavenly Father’s children. The sealing power is not going to cut off their extended family–it’s like we’re all this big huge family."
Awesome. I love adoption. Meanwhile I am nibbling on this adorable boy:
He is gorgeous! Congratulations. We are adopting too, though internationally. I was doing a google search for adoption and baby room decor searches when I came upon your blog. I love the way you decorated this sweet guy's room. Many blessings to your growing family.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.barefootandadopting.blogspot.com/
I totally peeked in on your blog from the r house link. I love this post. it reminds me of this ensign article http://lds.org/ensign/1993/06/the-family-now-and-forever?lang=eng , where is says this (sorry for the long quote):
ReplyDelete"There is another doctrine concerning families that was unknown until the Restoration: Not only can the nuclear family be sealed in eternal relationships but so, too, can extended families. A person may be sealed to spouse and children—but also to parents and grandparents and so on back to Father Adam and Mother Eve.
And the sealing can extend in the other direction as well: Parents may be sealed to children and grandchildren and so on to the last generation of the human family on this earth.
The implications of this doctrine are unique to the restored gospel: The human family in all its generations and in all its locales is one family. And the nuclear families of which it is composed seek not only to strengthen their posterity but also to seek out their ancestors to have them sealed in an unbroken chain as far back in time as records are available."
I love how because of the sealing power, everyone can be connected into God's family.