Our birthmother letter

We were asked by our agency to write a letter to our birthmother and I thought that some of you would like to read it,


Dear Jennifer,

My husband Erick and I wanted to quickly introduce ourselves, and get a couple pictures out to you before we have our first phone call. First of all, we can not truly express how thankful we are for this gift you are giving to our family. Since we are going to have the opportunity to talk, I wanted to tell you our story as to how we got to this point in our lives. I'll start with when Erick and I got married. Erick and I met in a church college and career group, and when Erick said that he first saw me he knew that he wasn't going to like me because I was wearing an Ohio State shirt (ironic :)). But actually 3 months after we met we were engaged, and 7 months later we were married! Erick and I have been married for 3 1/2 years, and since day one we have been trying to get pregnant. I actually did not work our first year of marriage because I thought that we would be pregnant right away. We understand that God often times has different plans for our life, and He doesn't always share these plans with us.

Believing that God is in control and that He must have something better for us, we felt it was time that I looked for a job. He opened the door to a great Christian Academy where I became the main science teacher, and I have been doing this for the last 2 1/2 years. If it was not for this job I would not have met my friend Sue. Sue and I started a group at our church called "Holding onto HOPE." This is a group for women who are infertile, where they can come together and learn to trust in God during this situation instead of turning from Him. We know how easy it is to feel that God is not there during infertility, and times of discomfort. During the year that we have had this group we have had many ladies come in and give their testimony about how God either opened their womb, or they adopted through Foster care, or just adopted through an agency.

During this time Erick and I had begun our process of going to an infertility doctor and we found out that unless we have an IVF (in-vitro fertilization - baby made in the lab and then placed in my belly) we would never get pregnant on our own. Having trust in God was the only thing that did not send me into a depression after finding out about that news. Knowing that there are children in the world that are already born, or about to be born that need a mom or dad, we started to look into adoption. Our search stopped abruptly because the financial aspect of it would not work for us. We then, seeing the need and understanding that there are millions of children in the foster care system that need a mom or dad to love on them until their parents can amend some of the mistakes that they made, we decided to sign up for our licensees. We are actually still in the process in which we are waiting for them (because our government believes that since my husband and I are young (27), we will skip town with the babies we watch?? Isn't that crazy) but we have decided that until we are blessed with our adopted baby we wanted to still help with the foster program.

In the time that we have been going through the foster drama, as I think of it :) , my friend Sue had been telling some people in the church about our group and how God is working through different scenarios like the hope of adopting through foster care. This is the part that began to rock our world! Sue met this couple, whom she told about Erick and I, wanting to adopt through foster care, and they asked why we were not adopting through an agency. She explained that it was because of finances, and they said that that should not be a hinderance, and they offered to PAY for the entire adoption for us! Wow thank you GOD. So a couple days after Sue talked to this family, Sue told me that I needed to start looking for an agency. I started looking at agencies that had the word Hope in them, and came across Hope for Families. Two days later Lynn and Ken Brown were at our house doing the home-study! The next day we learned about you! God's hand has been guiding us to this moment since the beginning of time, and it blows my mind to see how His plan is nothing that we could have orchestrated. So literally with in a week, I found out about this family and their financial contribution, found Hope for families, and then found out about you! Isn't God awesome!

We feel that the timing can not be any better either, the baby will be born near the end of the school year, which I will be able to take the rest of it off, and then I will have the whole summer off as well! The joy of being a teacher!. We know that this has got to be one of the hardest decisions you have ever had to make. . . EVER! And we are not taking that lightly. We just wanted to give you the HOPE that your baby will be entering into a family that has been waiting and praying for a miracle to happen. Not to mention all of our parents who have been eagerly waiting for a grandchild. So thank you Jennifer, thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Know that we are praying for you and hope that your current situation with your job and health will improve. We are also lifting your children and family up in prayer as well. I enclosed some pictures so you can put a face with a name, and when we talk you will be able to put a face with a voice.

Lastly, I wanted to leave you with a verse, actually our Holding onto Hope verse. Psalms 71:14 "But as for me, I will hope continually, and will praise you more and more."

Sincerely,
Jennifer and Erick