Thank you

I thought I'd post our little addition to the book we are giving Michael McLean as a thank you for doing a free fireside concert at the end of this month for our FSA November celebration.  His concert will celebrate adoption and is taken from this book and music CD.

Dear Michael McLean, My husband and I never thought we would have first hand experience with adoption.  After many years of infertility treatments however, it became clear that our family would have to start another way.  We started the adoption process in October of 2006.  It felt a little like a popularity contest for a while.  I would spend hours online looking at all the profiles of people that were waiting to adopt and cry because I wanted every couple to have the child they dreamed of.  I felt like I would be taking someone else's child if I adopted.  How would I know that the child we adopted was meant for our home and not someone else's?  Despite my doubts, we plowed ahead with the paperwork.  We became active with LDS family services in April 2007.  And we waited. 

 

That summer we attended the Families Supporting Adoption national conference in Salt Lake at my husband's insistence.  We were blessed to hear the experiences of many adoptive couples and birthparents and especially Glenn and Tania Beck.  Because of that conference, our eyes were opened to the vision of adoption.  We made some changes in our profile and our life and were contacted by several birthmothers via the internet.  Despite one especially promising relationship, I began to feel very depressed.  We decided not to pursue continued communication with her and prayed that Heavenly Father would lead our birthmother to us. 

Within two weeks we were contacted by our agency who told us a birthmother had chosen us.  Her reasons for choosing us resonated within our hearts and we felt the love that our Heavenly Father feels for her.  Our son was born the same day we met his birthmother.  Her expectations of having time with him in the hospital were cut short when the nurse discovered that he had a heart murmur.  Because of my experience as a NICU nurse, I was able to travel with him and be at his bedside until his birthmother was able to be there as well.  We were able to develop our relationship as we sat next to him in the hospital.  

He is now almost a year old and is currently in good health.  When I consider the events of the last two years, I see God's hand in every event.  I am especially grateful to our son's birthmother who had faith that He would lead her to her son's parents.  She sent us a copy of your book and CD, "From God's arms, to my arms, to yours".  Adoption truly is about love and your music captures that for us.  Our son is truly a gift of love from our Heavenly Father through the loving arms of his birthmother.