Matt and Hillary have a unique adoption story. When they started in 2019, they had one daughter, Ada. By the time they walked through adoption in 2021, they added another daughter, Corrie Grace, and their son through adoption, Shepherd! Hillary shares today how their family and hearts grew in the last few years.
After adopting our oldest daughter Ada in 2018, Matt and I knew that we wanted to adopt again. She is such a little miracle and we love being her parents.
Our friends had adopted their twins through Christian Adoption Consultants (CAC) and recommended Susan to us. It was really important to us that the adoption agencies we worked with were vetted to be ethical by CAC. It can be hard to know how to choose agencies and move forward in private domestic infant adoption. Susan walked us through the whole process and gave us all the information and resources we needed to be successful.
We had previously pursued fertility treatments but they did not result in a pregnancy at that time. We started the process in 2019 with CAC, but found out that we were pregnant naturally a few months into the process. We chose to put our adoption journey on hold for 18 months to enjoy our daughter, Corrie Grace and adjust to having two little ones.
In March of 2021, we dove into the adoption process again with Susan. It took a few months to get to the presenting phase as we updated our home study, updated our profile, and became active again with agencies. We presented to our first situation in June of 2021. We spent that summer praying and presenting.
The wait can be brutal. Matt and I tried to remember that each “No” we received was someone else’s “Yes.” We wanted to rejoice with the family that had gotten their miracle today while we prayed that someday it would be our turn.
September 2021 was our "Yes!" Our son’s birth mom, "K," chose us two weeks after we presented our book to her. She wanted to be sure about her decision! That two weeks of waiting was emotionally difficult for us as we felt so out of control. A dear friend sent me the song Just as Good by Chris Renzema and we listened to it on repeat those two weeks!
I work as an RN in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I got the call that K had chosen us while I was at work! I went into an extra room and just sobbed with joy as I called Matt to tell him the news. I came out to the nurses’ station and all my co-workers celebrated with me; it was a really special day. In fact, all the important phone calls in our adoption journey happened while I was in the NICU! I spoke with K for the first time over the phone at work. We found out that she was expecting a boy in October, while I was at work, of course!
The next few months were all about preparing, hoping, and praying. I wrote a note to K every week that we were matched which I found to be a really important part of our process. She is such an amazing person and getting to grow our relationship over that time was a true gift.
In January while working a night shift, I got the call that he had been born, 3 weeks early! K called me from the Labor and Delivery department and I heard him crying over the phone! I raced home at 1:00 in the morning and we booked plane tickets for the next day. The next two weeks we spent in Arizona, bonding with our son and with his birth mother. They were intensely emotional but also really full of gratitude for him, our newest miracle.
In the adoption process, it is really easy to forget that all this hard work- the paperwork, the heartache, the questions - can end with an amazing child in your arms. Shepherd was worth it all! We are so grateful that God placed him in our family!
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