Accepting the Unexpected

For those of you who are reading this post who may be pregnant and considering all your options, we wanted to tell you a little about our journey with adoption.....

I think that every little girl dreams of some day becoming a Mom. We play with our dolls, we rock them and we dress them and pretend to feed them. We push them in little strollers and do all those things that Moms do. And we just know that someday, we will do it for real.

Fast forward to Lance and I getting married back in 1993. (Yes, this means we have been married 19 years!!!! WOW. At this point you're probably thinking - "Wow, they look good for an old married couple!" hahaha) Anyway..........we decided to start our family after being married under a year. A year passed and no pregnancy. Two years and still nothing. I remember thinking, "This is so crazy. People have babies all the time. Why aren't I getting pregnant?" This was completely unexpected.  At that point we decided to get serious with our doctor and figure out what was happening; or better yet, why it was NOT happening. There is no point in telling about ALL the tests and ALL the money spent and ALL the sleepless nights. But I will say this, I sort of felt like my dream of being a Mom was slipping away. I didn't expect to not be able to have children. We did lots more tests with the same result: no pregnancy. There were some days that I felt completely empty, sort of a failure. Why couldn't we do the one thing that is supposed to 'just happen'? It. was. hard. This went on for six years. What should we do? Do we give up? Do we look at other options?

We prayed a lot. We cried a lot. We prayed some more and cried some more. And then a sweet feeling of peace came to us both as we 'Accepted the Unexpected'. We came to realize that our family was going to be created in a very special and unique way. We both felt that we should look into adoption. And so we did.......

And now, 12 years later we have been blessed beyond our wildest dreams with three of the most beautiful, happy, and precious children God could ever have placed in our family. We certainly did not expect for our family to be created in this way, but we are so grateful that it all happened the way it did. There is not a doubt in our minds that these children were supposed to come to our family. 

Now we find ourselves feeling very strongly that there is another baby that is supposed to join our family. We are praying for that baby's birth mother to find us or for us to somehow find each other. Hence, the reason for this blog.

So, why do we share this with you? Because just maybe you are experiencing something 'unexpected'. A pregnancy that you weren't planning on. Maybe with someone you weren't planning on spending the rest of your life raising a family with. Maybe you don't know what to do. Maybe you are confused. Or maybe you feel like your life plans or dreams are slipping away because of the situation you find yourself in. And just maybe you have prayed a lot. And cried a lot. And prayed some more and cried some more. And maybe all those dreams you had as a little girl of someday being a Mom are still really good dreams, but the timing isn't right.

Whatever is in your heart and no matter the decision you make; what we truly want for you is to experience that sweet feeling of peace. If you let Him, God will guide you and be there to help you know what the right choice is for you and your baby. May God bless you on your journey.....

With Love,

Lance & Lee Ann

anniebeard7@gmail.com
lancebeard@gmail.com