Moving From Infertility to Adoption

23
Apr

This week is National Infertility Week, a week devoted to raising awareness of infertility diseases and exploring resources for those working to grow their families. In the Indianapolis area, the Family Building Fair will be taking place this evening at The Fountains. MLJ Adoptions CEO and Adoption Attorney, Michele Jackson, will be presenting a special education session for professionals, titled “Indiana Laws Regarding Surrogacy, Donor Egg/Embryo, and more.”  Moving from infertility to adoption can be a difficult decision for families. Below is the story of an MLJ Adoptions’ client who experienced infertility and chose adoption as the path to parenthood.

national infertility awareness weekThis year, National Infertility Awareness Week is from April 20-26, and I have been asked by MLJ to share my husband and I’s journey from infertility to adoption. For many, it can be so easy to get pregnant. For others, weeks, months, and years go by and we are left in pain from negative pregnancy tests, failed IVF cycles, and miscarriages. Having dealt with infertility myself, and now being a parent to a beautiful one-year-old daughter who we adopted domestically, and hopefully another daughter from Samoa, I can tell you there is a light in the darkness that one might be experiencing.

Our story began a few years ago, when we were ready to take that next step and become parents. Although I felt we could have difficulty based on my past medical history, I remained positive and hopeful, because God had placed such a strong desire in my heart to be a mother, even from a young age. Months passed, and I could feel I was at a pretty low place in my life, until one Sunday at church when a sense of peace overcame me. It took me a while to compose myself and control my emotions afterward, to be able to tell my husband that I think we should let go of being able to have a biological child and consider adoption. He did not respond the way I had hoped, and for him, he needed more time to process through this. In the meantime, since it was still early on in our infertility journey, we decided to do a month of infertility treatments. Nothing could have prepared me for the devastation I felt after learning that this cycle was just a waste of time. As we reached out to family, we learned of my mother’s and father’s struggles with infertility. My father shared with me their use of fertility treatments to get pregnant with my sister and me. These particular fertility treatments were later taken off the market because of questions and concerns linking them to ovarian cancer. Coincidence or not, my mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer at age 45, and we did not want to take any chances in jeopardizing my health.

My husband was now open to exploring adoption, and we decided to go to a local adoption seminar. Adoption Attorney, Michele Jackson was there speaking on international adoption, and after hearing about their Samoa program, we were so excited to go home and learn more about the country. We were finally on the same page, and knew we should stop the fertility treatments and jump full force into the adoption process. Our adoption journey has not been the easiest either with long wait times and a lost referral, but the joy that our one-year-old daughter has brought to our life is indescribable and we cannot wait to bring home our other daughter from Samoa this summer.

As I look back on our journey from infertility to adoption, I know this was our plan all along. In the From Infertility to Adoption class that I lead for MLJ, we discuss how to come to terms with grief, and by facing it, you are allowing yourself to move past the loss you have felt. For us, pursuing adoption brought excitement and gave us something to look forward to again. It also gave me the hope that my dream of becoming a mother could become a reality sooner, rather than later or never.

Our next From Infertility to Adoption class will be on June 2nd, 6-8pm. Sign up on our events page if you are interested.

Photo Credit: National Infertility Awareness Week 

MLJ Adoptions is a Non-Profit, Hague-Accredited adoption service provider located in Indianapolis, Indiana, working in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Pacific Isles. We are passionate about serving children in need.

MLJ Adoptions is a Non-Profit, Hague-Accredited adoption service provider located in Indianapolis, Indiana, working in Africa, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Pacific Isles. We are passionate about serving children in need.