Kenya’s Adoption Completion

On August 8, 2019, our world changed completely! I was not only chosen by a birth mom as the adoptive parent, but our baby girl, Kenya Rayne, was also born. She has been the single most amazing adventure we have ever experienced. But, adoption also brings its financial struggles, and life doesn’t always work out as planned. So many people helped me with the initial adoption fees totaling $37,000. With the combined effort of donations, loans, and the total amount my fiancé and I had in savings, I was able to pay for all the upfront fees and have some leftover so I could take some time off and enjoy bonding with my baby girl. I had planned on taking 6 weeks to be with her and then returning to work 100%...and that is when life hit hard. Single-parent adoption is different as the financial responsibility technically is solely the single parent adopting and the state does not consider us to be adopting as a couple. On September 20th, 3 days before I was to return to work, my mom was hospitalized with congestive heart failure. In addition to my mom being ill, Kenya started treatment for a medical condition that required me to be out one day a week for the following 3 weeks. During the time my mom was in the ICU, a heart catheter procedure was performed to reduce some of the fluid on her heart. She was released to go home a few days later only to be rushed back to the hospital because of an infection at the catheter incision site. During emergency surgery to remove a portion of her artery and tissue surrounding the artery, they graphed a cow artery to replace the damaged artery. Mom started to do well again, I started work again, and then she became septic because the cow artery was tainted and not sterilized properly. On October 11th she was moved to the critical access care unit. And on October 15th my mom passed away from infection. I started working fully again on October 28th, almost 6 weeks later than I had planned. And, because of all that missed time, I was not able to save the remaining $7000 needed to complete Kenya’s adoption. And I am asking for help once again. I truly do not like asking for help but I know I should have started this fund a month ago when mom first became sick. My fiancé has been an amazing support but he also missed time to be with me during the struggle. On top of our pending adoption finalization fees, we also have regular household bills that need to be paid. My heart is so broken after losing my mom. She was my backbone in so many ways. Two days before she passed, she thanked me for making her final bucket list item a reality, she was able to see me become a mom. We always think we have more time than we really do, the reality is all of us are on borrowed time. We need to make the most of it and make dreams come true one way or another. And every time my baby girl looks at me and smiles, I know my life will be ok...I will be ok. This is just a small hurdle to overcome.