Adoption Story: Steven + Annie

I had the wonderful privilege of walking with Steven and Annie through their adoption journey. I was amazed by their strength and faith throughout this entire process. Today they share the story that led them to their beautiful daughter. I pray their words serve as a means of encouragement to anyone who is in a season of waiting. God isn’t finished with your story.

We will never forget waiting in the car in a thunderstorm for four hours to be let into the hospital through protocols and signatures to see our daughter. You hear all the time “patience is a virtue.” Our journey through adoption definitely tested our patience, but we wouldn’t have had it any other way. 

Our story starts like many others; boy meets girl, they get married, decide they want children together, and then bam! – a brick wall to get through. We struggled with getting pregnant and after many years of trying, fertility treatments, and praying, we moved forward with adoption. 

The first chapter in our adoption journey started with the long road of fostering to adopt. After completing the intense training program and being approved to foster, we were never given the opportunity to foster someone outside of an emergency situation. And even then, because of calling multiple families at once, someone had already committed before we could. As the length between situations kept increasing with fewer and fewer calls, we turned to prayer once again for guidance on what we should do. Was this a sign we were not meant to do this or is it a sign to pray harder?

Fast forward a few months later, it was a toss up between more expensive fertility options or adoption outside of foster care. This is when the great team at Christian Adoption Consultants came into our lives. We were so thankful to have Kelly Todd as our Consultant. Her guidance throughout the entire process was invaluable to us and without her support we may have given up. 

Once you get approved to present to situations you get this feeling that you made a great decision by working with a consultancy as everyone is on top of their game and very attentive. Although Kelly and her team were phenomenal, the process of presenting to situations just seemed to take the air out from under our wings. And then, “patience is a virtue” comes back. We presented over and over, feeling like “this is meant to be” each time. With each new exciting situation and potential match, we were met with “the mother selected a different family”. This became quite discouraging as we progressed deeper into our journey.

We had many sleepless nights, tears of sadness, and the feeling that our prayers were going unanswered. The thought came each time, “maybe we are not meant to do this?” We had many conversations with Kelly where she stayed positive, encouraged us to keep our faith, and to keep moving forward. She always helped us put everything into perspective and to continue praying just as she was doing. 

After presenting more times than we could keep track of, we were matched with sweet expecting parents. The excitement and joy that came over us was nothing we had ever experienced before. The baby was due in six weeks and the expecting parents wanted to meet with us prior to the birth. As nervous as it was to drive to a different state and meet the birth parents of our future daughter, the experience couldn’t have been any better than it was. We had a wonderful time getting to know each other and everything just felt right. For the first time in the presenting process, we finally got feedback as to why we were selected and it was completely overwhelming. 

From here we knew that there was a reason God had us wait so long to be matched. We were waiting for our daughter. From the moment we presented to the day we met, it felt like it was meant to be. Through the entire array of emotions, the many years of pushing through, and the countless prayers from everyone that knew of our story, we are forever thankful to our daughter’s birth parents, the agency used to complete the process, the team at Christian Adoption Consultants, and to God for bringing us such a sweet baby girl that has completely filled our hearts with joy. 

Stay positive in your journey, don’t lose your faith, and know that God has a plan for how your story will be told.

***If you are interested in learning more about adoption and the services we provide at Christian Adoption Consultants, I would love to chat! Email me, Kelly Todd, at kelly@christianadoptionconsultants.com to request a FREE information packet!***