A note from Sarah: There has never been a time when I thought forward about adoption and didn’t think that it was something I’d like to do one day. It became heavy on my heart after my second time spent at Casa de Fe, an orphanage in Ecuador. I spent an extended amount of time there back in 2017, and my heart broke, not only for the children but also for the families who felt they could not care for them. I formed a very strong bond with this little girl, Sol, who was four then and had special needs. We formed a strong bond because I was the only one at the time she would eat for. Our relationship became so close it killed me thinking about leaving her, as she had truly become part of my heart. I began to see how much I could love a child that I did not give birth to. I believe it was at this time The Lord showed me adoption was not only a desire I had but a calling He had on my life.
***(Sol is pictured on our final photo).
Fast forward a little bit, Keaton and I had our first date in January 2018. At this time adoption was currently strong on my heart. I shared with Keaton that I felt called to adopt one day, and he was very open to that. Ever since it has been something we constantly talked about doing in our family and something we both felt The Lord leading us to. I believe adoption is something The Lord has been preparing us for, for a long time.
After trying to conceive for a number of months, in the fall of 2022, we found out male factor infertility was our present challenge. We began talking about adoption and how The Lord had been putting that on our hearts. We had peace about adoption at that point in time. Looking back, we can see how that was The Lord reaffirming the desire for adoption he had given us, it just was not time yet.
After much prayer and many discussions, we decided to move forward with one last medical step. Keaton had surgery for a varicocele in July of 2023. As we waited for the results over the course of 3 months, we went through a season of waiting, unknowns, and fear of what if. During this time we clung to each other and our faith. The Lord used this time to strengthen our faith, our marriage, and ultimately anchor us in Him. We had high hopes this surgery would significantly improve our chances, but it did not. After this, we felt like that was as far as we wanted to go medically. We both felt like, after a series of doors being closed through infertility, and many prayers, that was The Lord answering our prayers of discernment, telling us that is not what he had for us.
It is through this we felt complete peace about pursuing adoption at this time. We knew if we were faced with IVF, that was not what we felt called to do, so we began discussing adoption again. We believe without a shadow of a doubt the Lord has called us to parent a child who has been conceived from a birth mother, needing a forever family, through adoption.
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