AdoptingBabyStewart
Donation protected
Do you have little ones? What was your journey to finding your family? We
have been on this special journey a while. Will you read and share our story
so that others may join us on this journey?
In 2003, my husband, Jim and I, Susan, met in Guam, United States territory while on a deployment, in 2004 we got married only to find out my husband would be deploying again in a year, the first three's years of marriage were anything but typical, we saw each other for only for 18 months in those three years, after two combat tours we both made it home almost in time for our anniversary, each time. We both deployed to Iraq one right after the other. In the meantime, my dad moved in, for us to take care of him, his wish was to meet his grand baby or babies before his death in 2007, on February 14th. When I got home for the last time, it was time to begin our family. Four years went by we both retired from the US Navy as SEABEE's, 2011 and 2012. A short time later, we wanted the dream of a family to be a reality but our journey would not be an easy one. The road was paved with disappointment month after month, so our doctor suggested
medical intervention. After four failed attempts, we resigned ourselves to being unable to get pregnant. But after learning that our insurance covered
IVF, we continued down this road…but with more disappointment. After a second attempt at IVF, I was told I was, again, not pregnant. So I scheduled a
normal check up at the VA and had to have 7 x-rays.
Just a few hours after having the x-rays
I received a phone call from doctor in charge of the hospital and was told I was, in fact, pregnant. Or, I was before the x-rays.
Due to this failure of x-ray protocol, the VA actually changed their policy to require pregnancy test results, must be in the doctor's hands before x-rays are performed. I’m glad this changed so it won’t happen to other families, but that didn’t change the lonely and heartbreaking path we were on.
When we finally accepted that we would not give birth to children, we started to look into adoption. It took a couple of years to find the right agency but we
finally found the perfect fit, Catholic Charities of Dallas. This has been a long and already expensive journey for us. We want to have children to expand the love already within our family but $28,000 is a little out
of reach for us. We are saving what we can and doing everything we can to raise this money. We know there is a child out there who needs us as much as we need him or her. Will you walk alongside us as we take a new path in a new direction to finding our family?
We have taken the first step in the commitment as we have attended an orientation and accepted the invitation to fill out the application. We learned how they help the birth mothers, they are asked what they think they want to do and the birth mother’s councilor explains her choices and then they go on to help them with what they need, they do not have just one choice. They make sure they get to doctors’ appointments, help with arrangements if necessary and make sure they get much needed counseling. Catholic Charities also has a sliding scale for their fees and it takes the average of two years of gross earnings. Among other fees, distance for driving to our home for the home study. In the end we might be looking at about $29,000. The will be an update when we know for sure. The drawback could be the year after the sixteen-hour conference our child would be placed. They do not take in many families they prefer 12 families at any given time. They just had a conference last month and the next one might be in the beginning of the year.
Please pray for us, for the emotional stress, the idea of rejection from a birth mother and the monetary fees that must paid. If you feel in hearts to help us, know that any size donation will be helpful, from $.01 to the extreme. Our first true goal is to raise and additional $5,000. Please know in advanced that if we go over what we need in the end we will pay it forward and help other families.
Thank you in advanced for your support, in getting us closer to having the family we have always dreamed of.
With all our Love in Christ,
Jim and Susan Stewart
https://ccdallas.org/our-services/children-family-senior-services/pregnancy-adoption/infant-adoption/
have been on this special journey a while. Will you read and share our story
so that others may join us on this journey?
In 2003, my husband, Jim and I, Susan, met in Guam, United States territory while on a deployment, in 2004 we got married only to find out my husband would be deploying again in a year, the first three's years of marriage were anything but typical, we saw each other for only for 18 months in those three years, after two combat tours we both made it home almost in time for our anniversary, each time. We both deployed to Iraq one right after the other. In the meantime, my dad moved in, for us to take care of him, his wish was to meet his grand baby or babies before his death in 2007, on February 14th. When I got home for the last time, it was time to begin our family. Four years went by we both retired from the US Navy as SEABEE's, 2011 and 2012. A short time later, we wanted the dream of a family to be a reality but our journey would not be an easy one. The road was paved with disappointment month after month, so our doctor suggested
medical intervention. After four failed attempts, we resigned ourselves to being unable to get pregnant. But after learning that our insurance covered
IVF, we continued down this road…but with more disappointment. After a second attempt at IVF, I was told I was, again, not pregnant. So I scheduled a
normal check up at the VA and had to have 7 x-rays.
Just a few hours after having the x-rays
I received a phone call from doctor in charge of the hospital and was told I was, in fact, pregnant. Or, I was before the x-rays.
Due to this failure of x-ray protocol, the VA actually changed their policy to require pregnancy test results, must be in the doctor's hands before x-rays are performed. I’m glad this changed so it won’t happen to other families, but that didn’t change the lonely and heartbreaking path we were on.
When we finally accepted that we would not give birth to children, we started to look into adoption. It took a couple of years to find the right agency but we
finally found the perfect fit, Catholic Charities of Dallas. This has been a long and already expensive journey for us. We want to have children to expand the love already within our family but $28,000 is a little out
of reach for us. We are saving what we can and doing everything we can to raise this money. We know there is a child out there who needs us as much as we need him or her. Will you walk alongside us as we take a new path in a new direction to finding our family?
We have taken the first step in the commitment as we have attended an orientation and accepted the invitation to fill out the application. We learned how they help the birth mothers, they are asked what they think they want to do and the birth mother’s councilor explains her choices and then they go on to help them with what they need, they do not have just one choice. They make sure they get to doctors’ appointments, help with arrangements if necessary and make sure they get much needed counseling. Catholic Charities also has a sliding scale for their fees and it takes the average of two years of gross earnings. Among other fees, distance for driving to our home for the home study. In the end we might be looking at about $29,000. The will be an update when we know for sure. The drawback could be the year after the sixteen-hour conference our child would be placed. They do not take in many families they prefer 12 families at any given time. They just had a conference last month and the next one might be in the beginning of the year.
Please pray for us, for the emotional stress, the idea of rejection from a birth mother and the monetary fees that must paid. If you feel in hearts to help us, know that any size donation will be helpful, from $.01 to the extreme. Our first true goal is to raise and additional $5,000. Please know in advanced that if we go over what we need in the end we will pay it forward and help other families.
Thank you in advanced for your support, in getting us closer to having the family we have always dreamed of.
With all our Love in Christ,
Jim and Susan Stewart
https://ccdallas.org/our-services/children-family-senior-services/pregnancy-adoption/infant-adoption/
Organizer
Susan Stewart
Organizer
Whitney, TX