familiesOur Adoption Stories: Debbie and Bill
Our adoption journey didn’t begin until after we tried for over 6 yrs to have a 2nd baby. Our daughter Tiffani was born in 1995 and in Feb of 1997 we decided to have another child. After a couple of years with no success of getting pregnant, I went to the Dr. I was diagnosed with stage 1 endometriosis but was told that wasn’t the cause of our infertility. The doctors didn’t know why we weren’t able to have another biological child. We looked into domestic adoption several times during the past 6 yrs, and we just didn’t know where to begin. We would call agencies and they would send packets of information, but then that was it. Plus, it just didn’t feel right. I think deep down we still wanted to become pregnant. Well the pain of the endometriosis became so severe, that we decided it was better for me to elevate the pain. We then started the domestic adoption route again last summer. We took a trip to Disney and started taking pictures for our adoption packet and then we went to Epcot. We decided we would walk through the countries this visit. We usually don’t because they didn’t interest our daughter. Well, we went to China and when we walked out of there, the 1st thing my husband said was “are you thinking what I’m thinking?” I didn’t have a clue as to what he was thinking. He said he feels our child is in China and we needed to look into adopting from China. I was floored! I had looked into the China program for a few years, but with both parents needing to be 30, we didn’t qualify at the time. I didn’t turn 30 until 2002. Well now we did qualify. As soon as we came home from Disney, we immediately searched for adoption agencies to help us. A few weeks later, we contacted America World Adoptions and they replied to our email within 20 minutes. Luckily they had just opened up a FL office in Orlando. So 2 days after the email, we met with them. We knew from that moment this is what we are supposed to be doing. It just felt right. We’ve had one or two “bumps” in the paper chase process, but for the most part, everything has been so smooth. We started the paper chase in Sept and we became DTC Feb 20, 2004. We feel so blessed because there are also 2 other FL families within an hour from us who are in our same DTC group with our agency. We have become close friends and look forward to sharing our new lives together.
