Adopting Ashlee

The journey to parenthood is never an easy road, but it comes more naturally for some...and for others, it is an uphill battle.

For Dave and I, being parents was the #1 priority in both of our lives. Before we even got married, we knew we wanted a family. After years of negative pregnancy tests, heartbreak, and lots of tears, we knew something wasn't right. After a trip to the doctor and reproductive specialist, we found out that there was only a 1 in 2,000,000 chance that we could have children of our own.

This crushed us both beyond belief. It felt like our whole world had come crashing down. After a grieving period, we looked at all different avenues of building our family, most of which come with a hefty price tag.

Fast forward to February of 2016, when I stumbled upon a post in a support group online. It was from a local young lady, who was about 11 weeks pregnant and wasn't sure she would be able to care for another child. I was not the only one who messaged her privately, but I decided to tell her about us and see where it went.

I talked with her for a day or two, and did not hear from her again after that. I thought she either decided to keep the baby or place her with a different family. Well, 6 months later, we got the surprise of our life. That young lady messaged me, saying she was about 2 1/2 weeks from delivering the baby and wanted to know if we were still interested in adopting her. I looked at Dave, he looked at me, and he said YES! We immediately set up a meeting with the birth mom.

The day after the first meeting, we hired an attorney and everything we needed to get done was put on a fast track. We had 2 weeks to get the legal check list completed, along with furnishing a nursery.

On August 26, 2016 at 12:30pm, our daughter Ashlee Grace Marie was born. The first time we saw her after they brought her into the nursery, was love at first sight. We've never had so many happy tears!

Now here we are, with an almost 4 month old daughter. She is the biggest blessing and the best gift we could have ever asked for. But, as I mentioned earlier, the cost of building a family when you have to go outside natural methods, is very expensive. We have had a few hiccups with Ashlee's birth father and the termination of his rights, which has made our attorney bill significantly higher than we had originally thought it would be, and it grows daily until the adoption can be finalized (which we are hoping to do by the end of the year.)

So we are setting aside our pride, and asking for help in finally being able to call Ashlee ours, legally.

The money raised will go towards paying off the attorney. If there is anything left over, it will go into a college fund we are setting up for Ashlee.

Thank you for your consideration and prayers. We love you!