Adoption

My husband and I have adopted 3 children.

Andrew and I were married/sealed for time and eternity in the Timpanogos Temple. My husband and I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I use the term sealed because it is used by my theology, unlike a marriage where a priest states "until death do you part", a sealer (the person who marries couples in the temple) states, "for time and all eternity." A sealing performed by a sealer in the temple with authority from God lasts even after death.

During the sealing the sealer spoke of children and at that very moment both my husband and I received a spiritual impression that we would adopt children.  Along with that impression, I also knew that one day I would be able to carry a child (be pregnant) at least once.

Being LDS, you do not have intimate relations until after marriage. My husband and I had protected that most sacred part of ourselves for marriage, and so had no idea that something was possibly wrong.

I made appointments for fertility doctors almost immediately after our wedding, which lead to many doctors asking why we were so adamant about being tested--"I just need to know if we can have children", was my response.

Two and a half years of seeing doctors would eventually lead us to a specialist who, after running his own tests, would inform us that children would be impossible. His exact words were: "You cannot get pregnant. IVF, and anything else is not an option either. I suggest you adopt."

It was January 2008.

The same week we attended that doctors appointment, we were offered an adoption from my cousin Julie. Understand, no one in my family knew that we were seeing doctors. But the Holy Ghost told my cousin to offer us a child.

That first child ended up being my daughter --Sarah.

Michael, our second adopted, is her half-sibling. I saw him first at 2 months old and was told by the spirit, "This is your child, but you cannot have him yet."  One day after his first birthday he would be moved into our home, and six months later we signed his adoption papers.

Our third adopted child is Danny. Also a half-sibling to Sarah and Michael. We had him in our home immediately after birth, but he wasn't officially moved to our home until he was 3 months old.


Would you adopt again?

Yes.

Would you suggest others adopt?

You must be honest with yourself and your spouse. Bringing a child into your home is an eternal responsibility, and should not be taken with any light-mindedness. Adopted children will come with some surprises, you must be prepared for anything. My children all have fetal alcohol syndrome, they struggle with reading comprehension, central neural processing, choice vs. consequence decisions, bipolar disorder is in their family history. If you adopt, you must be prepared for anything and everything. You must be willing to fully love and care for you child regardless of what happens. You will need added patience, and you will need to be prepared to tell them their history someday. Truthfully, there are people that struggle loving children that were not naturally 'theirs'. Be honest.

If you can do that, and have a good support system from family/friends. Then, yes, adopt. Bring a sweet angel into your home. My children were of various ages when adopted. Decide if you can take on an older child, I loved having a child that already slept through the night as my first!