Author: Nacy

How We Met “Michael and I met in high school through a mutual friend during his senior year and my junior year. Not long after meeting, we decided to date each other exclusively. From this point in our relationship, I expressed my desire to expand my future family through adoption. We got married on July 5th, 2013 at 21 years old. From the moment we got married, Michael wanted to become a father. I knew I wanted to be a mother, but I didn’t quite feel ready. A little over a year into our marriage, we decided we would start…

How We Met “Leaving my college roommate’s rehearsal dinner in Seattle, WA, I closed the car door and thought, ‘Did I just meet the man I’m going to marry?’ It was August 22, 2014, and I had recently moved away from Seattle, back home to southern California to pursue my master’s in teaching. I made a quick trip back, not knowing my life was about to change forever. At the wedding the next day, I tried to focus on the bride, but couldn’t stop thinking about Matt, the groom’s friend who was kind, hilarious, and had a smile that lit…

How We Met “Michael and I met in high school through a mutual friend during his senior year and my junior year. Not long after meeting, we decided to date each other exclusively. From this point in our relationship, I expressed my desire to expand my future family through adoption. We got married on July 5th, 2013 at 21 years old. From the moment we got married, Michael wanted to become a father. I knew I wanted to be a mother, but I didn’t quite feel ready. A little over a year into our marriage, we decided we would start…

“A stereotypical young boy wants to grow up to be something super strong like a fireman, or very accomplished like a sports star, but I was different. I remember always wanting to be a dad. Now, don’t get me wrong, I definitely had my fair share of days dreaming I would be an archeologist like Indiana Jones, but the call to fatherhood was always front and center. The idea of having the opportunity to lead and love on a child of my own was so inspiring to me. More so, I could not wait to one day have a little…

Disclaimer: This story includes mentions of pregnancy loss that may be triggering for some. “I can remember being preschool-aged and stuffing our blue, round couch pillows under my shirt, and standing in the mirror staring at my profile while stroking my ‘pregnant’ stomach dreaming of the day when I would actually be pregnant. I am the middle of five kids, so the idea that I would one day be diagnosed as infertile never entered my mind. I remember thinking, ‘When I am 19, I will get married, and by 25, I will have my 3 boys and 1 girl.’ Courtesy…

Disclaimer: This story contains mentions of drug use and sexual abuse that may be triggering to some. Small Town Childhood “I was born in the late 80s in a tiny but beautiful rural town on the west coast of Vancouver Island. I couldn’t have asked for a better place to grow up. It was a beautiful and rugged playground for me and my friends. We knew everyone; it was safe, and we had all the freedom in the world. Summer days were spent riding our bikes to the lake or swimming in the salty ocean, climbing trees, and catching snakes…

A Wild Birth “We’ve always known that Charlee would create her own path in this world. After a full-term pregnancy filled with intense sciatica and vomiting, Charlee made her appearance on the living room floor, in front of a group of neighbors who helped with the delivery (because she decided she wanted to be out in the world faster than we could even get to the car). By the time the paramedics arrived, I was cradling her in my arms wrapped in towels and blankets waiting for my (very expensive) ‘taxi’ ride to the hospital via ambulance. She was so…

Our Little Miracle “Our beautiful Abigail was born on November 21st, 2021, and is our beautiful IVF baby. Having been diagnosed with Endometriosis at age 16, I struggled to get pregnant and my husband and I decided to commence IVF in February 2021. Against all odds (and only having two viable embryos) our first round was a success and we found out we were having our beautiful girl. I had a fairly normal pregnancy; all required screening tests came back nil to low risk. I was diagnosed with high blood pressure early in the pregnancy, however, at my 20-week scan,…

Disclaimer: This story contains details of grief and loss that may be upsetting for some. Living Our Dream “Hi. My name is Ona, and up until April 18, 2021, most would consider me your average middle-class suburban wife and mother in Phoenix, Arizona. At least that is what I considered myself. I worked from home, worked out in the early morning on my Peloton, hiked to catch sunsets, drove a big SUV to and from my kids’ sporting events, sat with my family to enjoy dinner, had a BBQ on the weekends, planned vacations, and went to bed every night…

Disclaimer: This story contains details of birth trauma that may be upsetting for some. Beginning My Pregnancy Journey “My journey with pregnancy first began early summer of 2018. That was when I got my first ever positive pregnancy test. My husband and I were trying to get pregnant, but not really trying. We went about it in a way of, we were ready to start a family, but it would happen when it happened. A few days after the positive test, I started to severely cramp and bleed. My husband, Steven, held me while we cried after leaving the ER.…

Infertility Struggles “I always knew I wanted to be a mom. In school, I was basically taught that if I even so much as look at a boy seductively, I was going to get pregnant, so later in life it never occurred to me I would have such a difficult time trying to get pregnant on purpose. After over five years of trying, two miscarriages, and all the non-invasive fertility testing my insurance would cover, we still had no answers. My OBGYN suggested three rounds of Clomid before she would refer us to a fertility clinic. Courtesy of Jenelle at…

The Perfect Birth Plan “After my experience giving birth to my son, you’d think I’d be nuts to want to go through it again. Check out Jaxon’s Birth Story to see what I mean. I won’t lie… I was terrified. Everyone tried convincing me to just schedule a C-section so it wouldn’t happen again. Could it happen again? Would I suffer through that same horrific nerve damage as before? It had been two years, and my leg was fully healed. Did I want to go down that road again? Once we found out I was pregnant with Charlotte, I did…

“I’ll never forget the moment my daughter was placed in my arms. She had a full head of dark hair, red marks on her face from the tape that once held her feeding tube in, and was as content as can be. Except I didn’t know she would be my daughter for years after. And she was placed in my arms by her first mom. Courtesy of Annmarie Jordan Called To Adoption Let’s go back to the beginning. I have always known I wanted to adopt in some form or fashion. God had laid that on my heart at a…

“’Ciera. you are beautiful.’ ‘Ciera, I love you so much.’ ‘Ciera, you sing beautifully.’ These are the words of affirmation my daughter hears on the daily… from her best friend Connor. Carissa Davis To know the love of a special needs individual is to know the true meaning of pure love. They hug you so hard it sinks into your soul. They laugh and enjoy life so much that it forces you to embrace the moment. For many years I questioned, ‘WHY was I chosen to be the mom to a Special Needs child? I am so ill prepared. There…

“My husband and I have been on a unique adventure from the very beginning of our relationship. Nothing we have ever done has been ‘normal.’  When I was in college, I took a break while writing a paper. This was a time when Yahoo chat rooms were bigger than Facebook. I went into Yahoo chat, and just as I was just clicking out of a room, Sean plastered this very large question on the board. ‘What’s going on in here?’ I jokingly responded, ‘Nothing much, get out while you still can!’ A few seconds later, he sent a private message.…

“Dear Apple Store, Green Hills, I’m writing to let you know how great your employee (pictured in this photo) was to me and my son, James, yesterday when we came to the store to buy a new iPad. When James was about three-years-old we bought him his first iPad. It turned out to be more than a device to watch videos. It became a way to help James communicate. Because James was born with Down Syndrome, and at six-years-old was diagnosed with Autism, we use his iPad everyday as a learning tool. Sadly, even with a life-proof cover, after seven…

Meeting Her Best Friend “When Abigail was a preschooler she met a boy in her speech therapy class named Chad. While in the waiting room they enjoyed playing together by swinging on the arms of the chairs and hiding from each other. Their friendship has blossomed over the last 14 years and they are now very close. It was so nice to be able to talk with another mom who had a child with Down syndrome. MaryAnne and I would share their milestones and any information we found that might help our kids.  She was a great source of information…

“We feel as if we have had several adventures in life. Our greatest, by far, has been the birth of our daughter Eleanor Jo. She joined our family in August of 2016, but the road to get her here was a treacherous one. Let me start from the beginning… Joe and I married in June of 2013.  We knew we wanted to start a family soon, as we were a bit older, and I also have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. PCOS can greatly affect fertility, so we knew it may take a while for us to conceive. To our surprise, we…

Welcoming A Child With Down Syndrome “14 years ago if you had said anything to me about 7 children, Down syndrome, adoption, miscarriage, and homeschool, I would have never thought that had anything to do with me or my future. I might have even prayed that some of those things would not be in my future. I may never know the purpose of every hard or good time that I have been through, but I can look back and see how so many of them have grown me and led me to where I am today. If my life had…

“My husband Derek and I have been together for 16 years. We married young and had so many plans for our future. We always knew we wanted a family but being so young we decided to wait a few years.  I finished Nursing school in 2010 and that was the perfect time for us to start family planning. It wasn’t but a few months in that we realized there were issues. It was so difficult for me to understand, our friends and family were having no issues getting pregnant, but we were. Seeing everyone so excited and happy was very…

“I was born on May 11th, 1995. My mom had a normal pregnancy with me, like she did with my two older brothers. Nothing was out of the ordinary. But a few hours after I was born, my pediatrician noticed something wasn’t right. I was blue in color and had low blood oxygen. He examined me again and ran several tests. He knew right then I had a heart defect. Growing up I always knew I was different from other kids my age. I remember always being asked why I had a scar on my chest, and I would tell…

“When I was pregnant with my fourth son, Kai, I thought I’d have another great, normal pregnancy. However, when went to our normal ultrasound at 20 weeks after already having one at 16 to find out he was a boy, it was clear very quickly this wasn’t going to be another normal pregnancy. Several medical professionals came into the room to tell us there was something wrong. It seemed that he had a hole in his heart and they suspected cleft lip and palate as well. Kourtney’s Klick Photography I’m not much of a crier, but I cried that day…

“I often refer to my twin girls as my miracle babies. Because what it took to get them here seems, to me at least, nothing short of miraculous. By the numbers it took over 2 years of trying, more tests than I can count, a laparoscopy surgery to remove endometriosis adhesions and a cyst on my ovary, 2 rounds of IVF, 1 miscarriage, 1 emergency cerclage placement, 119 days of bed rest, and finally 3 days in NICU. Those are the tangible things, the things I can put numbers on. It also took countless tears, thousands of silent pleas and…

“Being a twin is unlike anything you can explain or understand, unless you are one yourself. The bond is so strong that one can feel what the other feels, and vice versa. Growing up we were inseparable. We dressed alike every day, shared a car and cell phone, had the same friends…we were glued to each other’s hip. Teachers would recommend to our parents we be in separate classes, and we would cry at the thought of being away from one another. Our mom did not have the heart to break that bond between us, and we were so thankful…