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Our Adoption Journey to Sam
Our adoption journey actually began almost ten years ago when my husband and I started dating. Within 9 months of our first date, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Disease, which is cancer of the lymphatic system. After undergoing treatment, I was advised not to try to have biological children for at least five years just in case the cancer came back. During those five years we got married and pursued our careers. We also started talking about adoption. In the back of our minds, we were already thinking that we may not be able to have biological children. Six years after my diagnosis, we began trying to start a family….with no success! We underwent various fertility treatments, and eventually felt that it just wasn’t right for us to do it that way. We wanted to be parents, but this much effort and heartache was too much to take. We decided to stop the fertility treatments and to seriously consider adoption. We also began praying for whatever child that God had in store for us.
In May of 2005, my parents went with me to an FTIA informational seminar. My husband was running in the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon that day and couldn’t attend the meeting with us. I was hooked from then on! I was so excited about the possibility of adopting a child from Guatemala. I liked the idea of the children staying in foster care and that they were usually united with their adoptive families within 6-8 months after referral. Since my husband couldn’t attend the seminar, he was much more hesitant about the whole thing. He didn’t have enough information to be excited yet. We decided that he would need to attend a meeting too. We went to the next seminar that was held in June and also contacted a family that had also adopted from Guatemala using FTIA. That was all it took for him to be on board too. We officially began compiling our dossier on June 20, 2005. Even though we did everything as quickly as possible, we weren’t able to submit our dossier until September 30, 2005. It was very difficult for me to wait on other people to do things for me!
We requested to adopt a little girl and were told that the wait for a referral would be about 12 weeks (the waiting time for girls when we turned in our dossier). On a Friday afternoon, our coordinator e-mailed us that there were 5 baby boys that were waiting for families. We immediately got the chills! Was God telling us that we should adopt a baby boy instead? We talked about it and prayed about it all weekend. We decided that we were supposed to get one of these little boys! I called our coordinator on Monday morning and asked if it was possible for us to adopt one of them. She said that it was and that she would call me when she had a specific child for us. Within three days we got the call that we had been waiting for! Our son, Samuel David, had been born on September 10, 2005 in Mazatenango, Guatemala. We couldn’t believe it! This was actually going to happen. Our dream of becoming parents was coming true! We started sharing our news with family and friends. We also received a picture of the most beautiful boy we had ever seen!
We knew that we were in for a long wait so we decided to think about planning a visit trip. We decided that my mom and I would visit Sam over Christmas vacation. On December 30, 2005, we left for Guatemala to meet our baby boy. We arrived in Guatemala City around 2:30 p.m. and had Sam in our arms by 4:15 p.m. It was the best moment of my life! He was so wonderful! He came right to me and didn’t cry at all. We spent about 30 minutes talking with his foster mother via Andrea, the FTIA staff in Guatemala. We learned about Sam’s eating and sleeping patterns and exchanged gifts with his foster mother. She was so nice and we knew that she had been taking wonderful care of him. We were then free to spend the remainder of our trip with Sam. We spent 2 wonderful weeks with him. We actually stayed in Antigua, Guatemala in a home for families that are adopting. The home is called the Chosen Children’s Home, and I would highly recommend it to other visiting families. It was so hard to leave Sam after those two weeks, but we knew that we would be back soon to get him.
The final six week wait after my visit trip was the most difficult part of the whole journey. I had fallen in love with this little boy and had a hard time making it through the day without him. Finally on February 16, 2006, our coordinator called to say that we could go pick him up! We were so excited! Our U.S. Embassy appointment was scheduled for February 27, 2006. We immediately made our travel plans. We arrived in Guatemala City on February 25, 2006 and were able to get Sam that day. I was so excited for my husband to meet him since he didn’t get to go on the visit trip. Brandon and Sam bonded immediately. It was like we had all been together forever! We spent 5 days in Guatemala City and during that time, we attended our Embassy appointment. Andrea was with us during that appointment and made everything go smoothly. Our adoption was finalized and we were able to return home on March 1, 2006.
When we arrived at the Indianapolis International Airport, there were 47 of our family and friends waiting for us. They were cheering and crying….and so were we! They had made signs saying, “Welcome Home Sam!” It was the most emotional moment of our lives so far! Sam loved it all too. He was smiling at everyone and seemed happy to meet his new family and friends.
Even though our journey of adoption was ending, our journey of parenthood was just beginning. We’ve been home now for a month and we couldn’t be happier. We love Sam so much and can’t imagine our lives without him! We are so thankful that God led us to FTIA and ultimately to Sam. FTIA has been so helpful throughout our journey. Our coordinator was always there for us. She responded quickly to our phone calls and e-mails. We felt that she did everything in her power to move our adoption along as smoothly and quickly as possible. We have run into other people that have used other adoption agencies that have not had such positive experiences. We highly recommend FTIA and hope to adopt another child from Guatemala in the future!
~Michelle, Brandon, and Sam
