October is a month that calls awareness to several causes, but two quite different causes touch my heart very profoundly.  Though these causes are not related for most people, they are for our family.  In October we call awareness to Down Syndrome, along with Pregnancy and Infant Loss.  Without one, we would not have the other.  Let me explain…

Blessing, Chinese character

"He will be so blessed to be part of your family!"  "You guys will bless his life so much!"  These are the most common phrases we heard when we began our first adoption process.  When we got married, we discussed our family plans.  We knew we desired children, but we were not exactly sure what that would look like.  I was diagnosed with severe endometriosis and poly cystic ovaries when I was 18 years old.  I was never sure if I would be able to get pregnant, let alone sustain a pregnancy.  We promised to always be open to the gift of adoption.  Well, we achieved pregnancy five times in our marriage and have three living babies ranging from the ages of 13-9.  In 2015, God started to call us to consider expanding our family, but we didn't think he was calling us to have one of our own, so we began praying about adoption.