Corbin and Alyssa's story starts with great loss. Today I'm incredibly thankful for Alyssa's voice to share her raw, painful, and beautiful story of how they grew their family. The story of their two daughter's: one in Heaven and one in their arms...
We have always had a heart for adoption. When Corbin and I were dating, we would often discuss how many children we would have, and adoption would always come up. When we got married in October 2012, we decided that we would wait a few years to start a family. Our “plan” was to have two biological children, and then we would pursue adoption for our 3rd child if God led us to do so.
In September of 2014 I started to have minor health complications. I didn’t think much of it, but made a doctors appointment with my OB/GYN just to be safe. A couple of weeks later, I was diagnosed with PCOS. My doctor informed Corbin and I that it was wise to go ahead and start trying for a family, as it may be difficult for us to conceive.
In December of 2014, I had my first miscarriage at 6 weeks. We were devastated, but also very excited that we were able to get pregnant quickly. Since the miscarriage was so early and in the first trimester, our doctor told us that it is very common and not to worry – “The chances of it happening again is rare” she said.
In April of 2016, we found out we were pregnant again, and that we were due on New Years Day! We were over the moon excited and had very high hopes. As I reached week 12 (the “safe” zone), we decided we would announce our pregnancy to our friends and family! While watching fireworks with my family on the 4th of July, at almost 15 weeks, I knew something didn’t feel right. I couldn’t describe it – but explained to Corbin how I wanted to get checked out just to be safe. The next day at a doctor’s appointment, as I was lying on the sonogram table, I saw our sweet baby girl without a heartbeat. On July 8th, I delivered our beautiful breathless daughter, Lael Noelle. After we said our goodbyes, she was immediately sent to pathology. After waiting months to receive the results, my worst fear came true. “Everything came back normal – your daughter was normal and growing as she should have been. You had a 3% chance of having a fetal demise” said my doctor. It felt like my heart dropped to the floor as I realized my body was responsible for her death. As my doctor went over my blood work results, she told us that we possibly could have biological children, but pregnancy would be a high risk.
As days, weeks, and months went on, Corbin and I kept praying for answers. I went through stages of feeling very angry, guilty, and hopeless. Not sure of where to turn or what to do, the same bible verse kept coming to my mind day after day. “I will not cause pain without allowing something new to be born, says the Lord” Isaiah 66:9. I knew God had a plan. I knew God wanted Corbin and I to use Lael’s short life for His glory.
As Corbin and I started discussing the possibility of pursing adoption, we both decided to take our time and lean on prayer. We didn’t want to rush such a big decision and wanted God to lead our way. After praying God would give us peace of mind on one Saturday in February, we decided that we wanted to go to The Village Church in Flower Mound that next morning. We had heard wonderful things about the lead pastor Matt Chandler, and wanted to see how we liked it. As the sermon started, we realized that this Sunday was going to be different than most. It was dedication Sunday, where the newborn babies and baptisms were being recognized. As we watched each baby picture come up on the large screen, Corbin and I looked at each other with grief in our eyes. Then something began to happen. Adoption story after adoption story after adoption story was shown on the large screen! As tears began to fill my eyes, I knew being at The Village Church that day wasn’t an accident. We asked God to speak to us, and He did!
After a lot of research, we decided to sign on with Christian Adoption Consultants! After we were Home Study approved in July, we applied to six different agencies in multiple states. Shortly after we applied, we received an email one afternoon regarding a birth mother from our agency. Corbin and I immediately loved her profile, and decided we wanted to present our family book to her. A few days later we received the phone call that she had chosen us to raise her baby girl! We were so excited and couldn’t wait to meet her, as her due date was a short five weeks away!
When the time came to head to Florida, we were able to meet and have lunch with our sweet birth mom before our beautiful baby girl arrived. As we greeted one another, there was an instant and immediate connection that we couldn’t deny – we had been praying for her specifically since that day in February at church, and we knew, undoubtedly, that God’s hand was at work.
The very next day, our baby girl was born - Audyn Jade - 6 pounds, 13 ounces, and 18 ½ inches long! We are eternally grateful that we were able to share those special moments with Audyn’s birth mother, and we will cherish the memories for a lifetime. And in details that only God could have orchestrated, we later found out that Audyn's conception date was Lael's (our biological daughter's) due date.
When we lost Lael we couldn’t understand why, but God has shown us that His plan for our family was much bigger than our own. Even on the hardest days when we couldn’t understand our path, or how God was working, He was faithful, and we couldn’t be more in love with our Audyn Jade!
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