Adoption Road to Baby Running

Hi There!  We are Justin and Dawn and this is the story of our journey to have a family.  We started chatting via messages through Match.com at the end of September in 2010.  We went on our first date in November of 2010 and by October of 2011, we knew we wanted to start trying to have a family.  In August of 2012, Justin proposed and we planned our wedding in 3 months and were married on November 3rd, 2012.  At the end of December, we went to our first appointment with an RE (Reproductive Endocronologist).  We had all sorts of tests done and were told to try 3 IUI's and then we'd have to move onto IVF.   In June of 2013, we did our first IUI and it failed.  The rest of the summer our schedules didn't work with the RE's and we ended up taking the rest of the year off from treatment.  In March of 2014, we decided to switch from Mayo to Gundersen.  We loved our new clinic and Dr.  We tried IUI's in April and in May, both resulting in negatives, however, Dr. R discovered that she was 99% sure I had endometriosis (Uterine tissue that grows outside of the uterus and can cause very painful cycles and of course, infertility).  I had surgery in June of 2014 and it turned out to be stage 4 (one of the worst).  After recovering, we tried a 4th IUI in August with straight injections (vs. pills)  and that one also failed.  In September, I went in for my Day 3 ultrasound to make sure we were on track and could start another cycle and I had cysts on both ovaries.  Throwing out $600 worth of medicine because it wouldn't stay good til the next month was very difficult!  We decided to sit out in October also because I felt the cysts were not gone yet and on Nov. 2nd, we went to Church and it was Orphan Sunday.  This is a day that many Churches and places around the world get the word out on how you can help the many orphans in this world.  We had talked about adoption from almost the our first date and as we sat there, we kept hearing the question, "why would you continue to spend money on treatments when you could be adopting?".  We had  previously met with an agency but had decided to wait on trying to start the process because of finding out about the endometriosis and having surgery.  We decided that day to give up on IUI's/IVF and let the adoption agency know that we were ready to move on.  We had to wait til January to find out if we would be picked to start the process and on Dec. 14th, we found out that I was pregnant.  I can't tell you how excited we were.  We told our families and close friends as soon as the Dr. confirmed it with a great HCG beta test.  Everyone was so excited that after 3 years of dealing with infertility, we finally got our Christmas miracle.  On Dec. 29th, we had our first ultrasound at 6w1d and there was no heartbeat yet.  Our Dr. said it could just be too early, so she rescheduled us for another one for about a week and a half later.  On Jan. 8th, we went in and unfortunately, there was no change.  The baby hadn't gotten any bigger and the Dr. said I would more than likely miscarry naturally within the week.  She was right and I miscarried about a week later.  Physically and emotionally, it has been the hardest thing we've ever had to endure.  One thing hasn't changed though;  we still want to build a family whether through birth or adoption, we know that we can love our baby just the same.  We chose to keep our names in the drawing that was being held on January 20th.  The agency we were going through only picks a certain number of people each year to start the adoption process based on the numbers from the year before.  We knew that if God wanted us to adopt, we would be picked, and if that wasn't His plan, we wouldn't be.  Late in the afternoon, we received the email that we were chosen to begin the process.  Although this process is daunting, overwhelming, and expensive....we are so very excited to get started!  If you would like to help us finally have the family that we have been waiting so long for, we would so very much appreciate it!  Thank you for reading and sharing!!!

God Bless,
Justin and Dawn

Update:  We have been made aware that there are people that would like to just send money directly to us.  If that is the case for you, the address is:

700 East Ave
West Salem, WI 54660

Thank you!