Adoption Series 2015 - Kylie and Greg

Today begins the Adoption Series 2015 on the blog!  We are excited to let you know that we have four adoption stories to share with you this month!  Please be sure to check back every Monday for those!  We hope to add some other adoption related posts of our own too!

I'd like to introduce you to Kylie and Greg.  They have been blessed with two boys, Landon and Ethan, through the process of adoption.  Here is their story.

Before we were married we talked about having kids but wanted to wait a few years.  After we were married on August 2, 2003 we never really talked about starting a family.  That was until about a year after the wedding. We decided what are we waiting for!  So, we began trying and trying, with no luck.  We made our way to the OBGYN and started all the testing to find out my husband had low sperm counts and I was not ovulating correctly.  Our next step was to go to a fertility doctor.  They told us our only hope was IVF.  Which we knew something about because my sister was going through IVF also.  We did two attempts.  I remember being in recovery after my second retrieval and the doctor saying it doesn't look good.  That our options would be to use donor eggs and sperms or adoption.  I remember saying to Greg with tears rolling down my face "adoption".  My thought was I do not have to give birth to be a mother.   

Greg called our good friend Tina while I was still in recovery and got the ball rolling.  Towards the end of May 2006 we found an agency we would work with,  and began the paperwork process.  My husband was persistent with getting the paperwork, home studies,  education classes, etc.  done in a timely manner.   

Thank goodness because November 11th, 2006 we received a call about a baby boy being born on the  10th!  It was late at night, so our agency told us to call her the next day.   So I went to work the next day and when I got home Greg was on the phone with our agency and gave me a thumbs up.  She told us to go shopping for all things a baby would need.  We then met her at the  hospital that night to meet Landon.  We fell in love immediately!

Greg and I could not believe how smoothly this adoption went.  Our agency kept saying they usually were not that smooth.  When Landon was about a year and half old we decided to start the process again.  We had completed all the paperwork, home studies, etc., and we waited and waited.    We then started working with other agencies, we had a  sister who is a lawyer.  We sent her our portfolio and she started showing it to birthmoms.  We had a couple birthmoms who wanted to meet us but they chose another couple.  We had a birthmom choose us but after the baby was born she decided to parent (we never saw that baby)  that was hard but the hardest was yet to come.  

In September 2009, my cousin messaged me on Facebook because she worked with a lady whose daughter was pregnant and was thinking about adoption.  She gave me the girl's number.  With our agencies approval we contacted the mother and set up a date to meet.  We met and that day she told us she  wanted us to adopt her baby boy.  She told us we could go to her doctors appointments and be with her through labor and delivery.  So for two months we did not miss one of her doctors appointments.  The birth mother had a date scheduled to be induced and was making sure we would be with her in labor and delivery.  

The day came.  Braden Issac was born and it was one of the most beautiful days of my life.   She left the hospital 18 hours after he was born,  she had given us temporary custody.  We brought him home from the hospital waiting for her to terminate her rights.  Five days after we brought him home our agency called and told us she was going to parent.  We were devastated!   But we had Landon, each other, family, and friends.   We knew  God had a plan.  

May 27,  2010 we received a call from our agency about a baby boy that was in NICU at a hospital in northern Indiana.   He was born outside a hospital somewhere on the south side of Chicago and ten hours after he was born his birthmom took him to a fire station and surrendered him.   Thank goodness for the Safe Haven Law! The only ones we told were my parents that we had been chosen, we then dropped Landon off at their house and drove the 5.5 hours to the hospital.  We were scared because of the last time.  

Greg and I made it to the hospital and was welcomed by the nicest nurses we know and met Ethan Issac.  We chose his name in the parking lot of the hospital. He was a healthy baby, they were just running a lot of tests on him.  We were able to leave the hospital three days later.  

Although we have never met either boys birth parents we thank them and pray for them daily.

Greg and Kylie, thank you for being truthful and sharing your adoption story with us.  I'm sure your words will help those out there considering adoption and those waiting to adopt.  May your family of four be blessed everyday. Thank you for participating in the In Between the Sunsets of Life Adoption Series 2015!

Julie & Milton