OUR ADOPTION BEGINING

I (Debbie) wanted to share with you our families journey to the decision to adopt Olena.

The Mr and I have 4 beautiful children that have come to our family the usual way :) Our oldest Miranda is 12 years old, then Talon who is 11, Lucy who is 7 and Carter who is 5.
Each one of these pregnancies were very taxing on my body. I became extremely sick and the sickness progressively got worse with each one, culminating in me having a pic line in for most of my last pregnancy which intravenously gave me steroids and medications of all sorts. This was quite an unpleasant experience but I knew that our child (Carter) was meant to be with us so I endured.  During the course of our married life, we also had two miscarriages which caused me great sadness.

After the birth of Carter, My Doctor told me that I shouldn't have anymore. He didn't think that my body could handle another pregnancy. We both agreed and took measures to ensure that there would be no more babies. For a long time after I was very content with our beautiful little family and felt very blessed to have all our children healthy and relatively happy (you know how kids are!) It wasn't until a long time later that during a temple sealing of a friend that things changed. The sealer was speaking to the couple about starting a family, and I felt a very strong feeling that we were supposed to adopt. This took me by surprise, because it wasn't something I had even considered. The Mr and I had spoken often about ONE day possibly being foster parents, but adoption had never come up.

This feeling never left. I have felt since then, very strongly at times, that our family was not complete. But knowing how much money it was to adopt a baby, we just never thought we could do it, so the thoughts were pushed aside. We secretly hoped that one day someone might just offer us a baby to adopt, which we would have gladly accepted!

Jump forward a few years to August of 2012. I was checking facebook, which sadly I do all too often, and came across a post from my relief society president. She had posted a link to someones blog that was hosting some orphans from the Ukraine. She only had a few pictures of the children (they discourage posting a lot of pictures) but I was drawn to one in particular. It was a picture of 2 young girls that had just had their hair cut for the first time ever. They had huge smiles on their faces and looked like they were having the best time. Underneath, the blogger had written that these smiles were a drastic change from just that morning, when they looked like they had no hope. I had this overwhelming feeling that I need to meet these girls. I quickly called my husband and asked if he would care if we hosted one of them. He said it was fine, so I called. The man I spoke with, Rob, was wonderful. HE was so excited that we wanted to host a child, he started telling me about the young boys that didn't have families to stay with. I was all ready to have one of them come, but I kept getting a feeling that I should ask about the girls. I usually don't do very well following promptings, but this time I couldn't deny it. So I asked. He said that the girls had just been taken out of a different home and had been staying with him for a few days, so it would be ok for one of them to stay with us. I was so excited. I knew that if I hadn't of asked about them, we would not have met Olena. She was brought to stay with us that night. Immediately she fit in with our kids. They all loved her. Miranda and her especially were like kindred spirit, despite the language barrier. It was beautiful to watch. We were told that we shouldn't consider adopting her unless we really felt like she was meant to be in our family, because there are cheaper ways to help these kids. Well, we talked and talked and fasted and prayed and it was overwhelming how much we all felt like she was meant to be with us. She is our daughter, and we can't wait to be reunited with her again.