why?

so a few of you might be wondering about this whole ...ball of wax. adopting. how did we get here? what's the current process? what's the next step?  i shall try and answer some of your burning questions.

why adoption?

to answer this question i'm just going to back up a bit, in case there are some bloggers out there who don't know us.

i (camille) met andrew ten years ago through a mutual friend. i had a mini crush on him and as time went on, the fire sort of died - as i assumed he was smitten with said mutual friend. about four months after we met, i asked for a ride home with him after we'd all gone out to eat with friends. as we sat outside my apartment we talked for two hours and before i knew it, it was midnight! he called the next day. and the next day. and the rest was history! we 'knew' we'd be together forever after a few weeks. he was 'the one' and i fell head over heels.

a few months later we started a long distance relationship, as he headed off to a different province for a job transfer. it was one of the hardest years of my life but we managed to weather it AND get engaged. our wedding was september 27, 2003. we've been married ever since and it will be 9 (almost always blissful) years of marriage this fall.

since then we've had challenges, highs and lows, and grown a lot in the relationship.  about five years ago we decided to start a family. after a year of no success we started testing and ultimately got the verdict of unexplained infertility. it was (and is) frustrating to deal with a diagnosis on something, that could (still) change in an instant.

since then we've tried a few treatments with no success.  finally we had to (both) come to a point of grieving a biological child and accepting that for ourselves.

about two years ago, i started to read and research a ton about adoption. i knew that if i couldn't biologically have a baby, i wanted to be a mom anyway i could.  i've always had a heart for kids, and if you know me well you'll know i always gravitate towards kids and babies and often prefer their quirky conversations to the stuffy adult topics. :) i've always loved kids, but specifically there's always been a special place in my heart for the neglected children of the world.

james 1:27 has always resonated deeply within me: "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."

sounds great, right? except andrew wasn't ready to pursue adoption yet.

andrew and i had many conversations about it. we talked with friends who have adopted and they blessed us with their insight and wisdom. but he needed time to process such a huge decision.

quite honestly, we were going to try to 'decide' this summer and figure it out together.  but almost a month ago, out of the blue, he shocked me with these words:

"Honey, I'm ready to adopt."

i was thrilled, shocked, happy and totally unprepared!

such a huge blessing to see my husband come to this conclusion and embrace it fully on his own time and terms.

whew....well i guess that only answers ONE question. next blog post coming soon!