Bringing Home Baby LaBelle
Donation protected
"Our Story"
(AKA: Just who the heck are these people, and what's the deal with this fundraiser?)
We are the LaBelle family, and we are comprised of husband Eric, wife Holly, and an orange feline fuzzball named Lyla. We (the humans, cat not included) have been happily married for 10 whole years. As with many a marriage, it's been one hell of a ride thus far. We've been through mind-numbingly tough times together & other times so good they border on Shangri-la. We've remained right by each other's side through it all, and honestly wouldn't change a thing.
To sum us up, we are a couple of ambitious go-getters and big dreamers. We believe in the importance of community, and thus are loyal, dependable, and giving. We live by a code of kindness and respect, and love to lend a helping hand or sympathetic ear to the people in our lives. We are creative folks & find real joy in getting our hands dirty, whether it be in renovating and redecorating or gardening and cooking. We are also proud lovers of many things wonderfully nerdy & geeky, and we are fortunate to live a life full of laughter and silliness. We are truly very blessed – it’s a pretty dang good life.
Yet there is a huge chunk missing.
A couple of years ago, we hopped on the Babymaking Train, ready to start our family. We would daydream together about what our kids would look like & how their thick, curly ringlets of hair (that they would totally have) would make them look like angels. But as each month passed, the at-home pregnancy tests kept showing negative results. Frustrated but still hopeful, we finally saw a fertility specialist, ready to get this all sorted out & get on with growing our family. But after a series of tests were run, our Babymaking Train was brought to a sudden, jarring, dead stop. It was so utterly surreal...the words from the doctor just seemed to hang motionless in the air...there's just no way we can have our own biological children. It just isn't possible.
We will never forget the detonation of that emotional bomb. We didn't speak the whole drive home...we couldn't. It felt like Novocain was injected into our entire nervous systems. We just sat with the news for a while, letting it digest while the shock wore off.
Eventually, of course, the dust managed to settle & we could once again begin to think. And we instantly knew that we weren't yet finished fighting for our family. The road to parenthood had in no way come to its end, we were merely re-routed.
We began the research into the world of adoption, familiarizing ourselves with the process & terminology, just trying to become accustomed to this new direction. We found a fantastic adoption agency to help us with every step of the process, which in turn allows us to keep what's left of our sanity in tact.
To say that we chose adoption is completely untrue – adoption, undeniably, chose us. We had no idea this would be our path; we simply weren’t aware. But now, being here and moving forward in the process, we know that this is the path we were always meant to take. And we are truly honored and proud to do so.
This will be our family – one that proves that blood alone does not constitute family, and that love is what bonds a family together, despite all differences and against all odds.
Adoption is a long & involved process, with lots and lots and lots of paperwork, background clearances, health reports, references, legal stuff, hours and hours of writing, and mounting expenses. Oh yes, everything you’ve heard about adoption being “expensive” is very true. For us, we are looking at a modest $35,000 to adopt an infant born in Pennsylvania.
Which brings us, at long last, to the fundraiser portion of our story, and the part where you, dear reader, step in. We humbly ask for your help in our quest to Bring Home Baby LaBelle. Whatever amount you are comfortable donating will go directly towards our terrifyingly huge adoption costs, and brings us one step closer to parenthood.
We are sincerely forever grateful for your help & support for li'l ol' us, and we thank you from the very bottoms of our hearts.
(AKA: Just who the heck are these people, and what's the deal with this fundraiser?)
We are the LaBelle family, and we are comprised of husband Eric, wife Holly, and an orange feline fuzzball named Lyla. We (the humans, cat not included) have been happily married for 10 whole years. As with many a marriage, it's been one hell of a ride thus far. We've been through mind-numbingly tough times together & other times so good they border on Shangri-la. We've remained right by each other's side through it all, and honestly wouldn't change a thing.
To sum us up, we are a couple of ambitious go-getters and big dreamers. We believe in the importance of community, and thus are loyal, dependable, and giving. We live by a code of kindness and respect, and love to lend a helping hand or sympathetic ear to the people in our lives. We are creative folks & find real joy in getting our hands dirty, whether it be in renovating and redecorating or gardening and cooking. We are also proud lovers of many things wonderfully nerdy & geeky, and we are fortunate to live a life full of laughter and silliness. We are truly very blessed – it’s a pretty dang good life.
Yet there is a huge chunk missing.
A couple of years ago, we hopped on the Babymaking Train, ready to start our family. We would daydream together about what our kids would look like & how their thick, curly ringlets of hair (that they would totally have) would make them look like angels. But as each month passed, the at-home pregnancy tests kept showing negative results. Frustrated but still hopeful, we finally saw a fertility specialist, ready to get this all sorted out & get on with growing our family. But after a series of tests were run, our Babymaking Train was brought to a sudden, jarring, dead stop. It was so utterly surreal...the words from the doctor just seemed to hang motionless in the air...there's just no way we can have our own biological children. It just isn't possible.
We will never forget the detonation of that emotional bomb. We didn't speak the whole drive home...we couldn't. It felt like Novocain was injected into our entire nervous systems. We just sat with the news for a while, letting it digest while the shock wore off.
Eventually, of course, the dust managed to settle & we could once again begin to think. And we instantly knew that we weren't yet finished fighting for our family. The road to parenthood had in no way come to its end, we were merely re-routed.
We began the research into the world of adoption, familiarizing ourselves with the process & terminology, just trying to become accustomed to this new direction. We found a fantastic adoption agency to help us with every step of the process, which in turn allows us to keep what's left of our sanity in tact.
To say that we chose adoption is completely untrue – adoption, undeniably, chose us. We had no idea this would be our path; we simply weren’t aware. But now, being here and moving forward in the process, we know that this is the path we were always meant to take. And we are truly honored and proud to do so.
This will be our family – one that proves that blood alone does not constitute family, and that love is what bonds a family together, despite all differences and against all odds.
Adoption is a long & involved process, with lots and lots and lots of paperwork, background clearances, health reports, references, legal stuff, hours and hours of writing, and mounting expenses. Oh yes, everything you’ve heard about adoption being “expensive” is very true. For us, we are looking at a modest $35,000 to adopt an infant born in Pennsylvania.
Which brings us, at long last, to the fundraiser portion of our story, and the part where you, dear reader, step in. We humbly ask for your help in our quest to Bring Home Baby LaBelle. Whatever amount you are comfortable donating will go directly towards our terrifyingly huge adoption costs, and brings us one step closer to parenthood.
We are sincerely forever grateful for your help & support for li'l ol' us, and we thank you from the very bottoms of our hearts.
Organizer
Eric LaBelle
Organizer
Sellersville, PA