And off we go...

Jeff and I thought that it would be helpful to our family, friends and people starting this process to read the "goings on" of our journey. This first blog will just recap how we got came to this decision. Welcome.

Jeff and I met when Alli was 2. It was during a college class that we got to know one another. We were friends for a year when he FINALLY asked me out in April of 1998. We got engaged one month later - Yes, I said a month. I guess when things are right, they are right. We did not marry until July 28th, 2001.

Many of you who know me well know that I tend to do things the hard way, but for some reason, this all was very easy. I suppose this should have warned us of challenges that were ahead, but love blurs the vision quite conveniently. Here was the easy part. Jeff was a great father from day one. It was strange how a guy graduating from college, with no experience with fatherhood could automatically ease into the role of Daddy, but it just happened that way. I would like to say that there was an adjustment period and that it took time, but honestly, it did not. Alli crawled onto the couch, sat on his lap, and Jeff was over being a single guy. He was hers, and she was his. It was easy.

Another easy decision was to adopt. We both are adopted. I think that there are no coincidences, but opportunities that present themselves for choice. We chose Jeff, and Jeff chose us for a reason. We felt somehow led to one another. One of our first conversations and connections was in that college class talking about being adopted. Neither one of us had met many people who were adopted, so were instantly interested in each other. We both had known that adoption was in our future long before we ever met. We knew that it was possible to love a child who is not biologically related by the examples from both of our parents. Jeff and I both have said that we have forgotten we were adopted many times. We know that our parents do not think any differently than any of you with kids. It is all the same.

We also decided to try for a biological child right away. This was the difficult part. Let's just say it was a challenge. We had a weird sense of humor about things that most people do not understand. It was one of those situations that you either laugh or cry. We cried a little; we laughed a lot. It is strange to hear a fertility specialist say that we were more likely to get struck by lightning and hit the lottery in the same day than get pregnant with no fertility help. Then, we headed to the Olive Garden. Now that is funny. Friends and family members were getting pregnant, people who wanted more children, those who were shocked by their news - then there was me - no luck. We thought about fertility options, but they gave us very little hope as far as percentages, etc. We chose to adopt earlier than we had planned. Fertility problems are difficult. Even though we knew we were to adopt, and that God obviously had chosen a path for us that we were not clued in on, it was still difficult to "give up" on the idea of having more children. It was difficult to get over the concerns of failing one another. Once we worked through that, we were able to see that there was a path there for us all along.

Once we got off of the fertility merry-go-round, we felt better. The analytical couple was off to research this until there was nothing left to read. We ruled out domestic adoption for various reasons. We decided on China. The following blog will take it from there...