For those of you who don't know our story, its a long one, so ill make this as short as possible. In January 2014 My husband Derek and I got married. By August we found out we were expecting our first child, a baby girl. Everything went well and was looking good. When I made it through the first trimester I was so excited, I thought we were in the clear. By November I was experiencing a lot of abdominal pain. 3 Emergency room visits, a weekend stay in the hospital, and a trip to my OB office later, I was admitted into the hospital where I found out I had HELLP ( hemolysis, elevated liver enzymes, low platelet count) syndrome and was starting to show symptoms of preeclampsia. I was 18 weeks pregnant with our little girl when they told me I would have to deliver. She was already measuring 2 weeks behind and my liver labs were dangerously elevated, heading toward failure, and my platelet count was critically low. I delivered our little girl, Rowan Rae, at 18 weeks and 1 day. We were able to hold her, but because she was so small and with the stress of delivery, she was born without a heartbeat.

When I was 16 I was diagnosed with a blood disorder, antiphospholipid antibody syndrome. My immune system mistakenly attacks normal blood cells and causes blood clots. With this syndrome and the pregnancy, my immune system lost all control. Delivering the baby should have solved the problem, only I got worse. Multiple procedures later, they transferred me to a different hospital, I was put in ICU, and we found out shortly after that I had multiple blood clots and had a stroke. I don't remember much from this time, only that I didn't remember my husband or any of my family, and that for them this was a very scary time. The doctors had never seen this syndrome to this magnitude, so no one knew exactly what to do or if I was even going to make it through. With the help of an amazing medical team, a great support system, and lots of prayers I made a full recovery.

Because of the critical case and unexpected outcome, multiple doctors have recommended that I do not attempt to get pregnant again. Almost 4 years later, trying to take the next step, looking into all of our options, we've finally settled on one! Which leads us to where we are now. We are so excited to announce that we are in the process of expanding our family through adoption! We're working with a great agency,  we have our paperwork in and approved, most of (if not all) our clearances have been approved, and we have a home study scheduled. We have been offered to start our profile soon, which leads us to our most recent dilemma. We have been saving as much as possible but, if you didn't already know, adoption (unfortunately) can be expensive. Up to this point we have been able to, for the most part, with the help of our families, do it on our own. But we have had people ask how they can help, and our next fee due is the biggest fee so far. Were not a couple that asks for help very often, but we want more than anything to become parents. Once we make a profile and get our home study approved, we've reached the end of our journey, and we wait to be matched with an expecting mother. We have been working so hard! So please, pray for us, share this as often as you can, and, if you see fit, help us on our journey to bring the future Baby P home! I promise to keep you all updated. Thank you for reading our story.