SO YOU WANT TO ADOPT ... NOW WHAT?!
 

Even though Joe and I always knew that we would choose adoption to start our family, we really had no clue how to begin our journey.   Thankfully, we have the most amazing community of friends and family that have guided us through every step of the way. 

Let’s rewind back to 2016 when we started to seriously think about growing our family.  We had been forthcoming about our desire to adopt, so it’s really no surprise that the first step involved Joe’s coworker, Tracie.  To say that Tracie is amazing, would be the understatement of the century.  She is the ultimate connector and insisted that we meet a couple who had also adopted a newborn in Ohio and was very open about their story.  Not long after Tracie put us in touch, we made a dinner date with Alison and Todd.  We met to chat about their son, their struggles to start a family, and long story short TOTALLY hit it off.   We left dinner having made great friends and decided to meet again.  The next time, we added Shanna and Collin who also successfully adopted in Ohio and hosted the group for an informal dinner at our house.  Both couples recommended that we look into an 8-week course offered by Nationwide Children’s Hospital called Adoption Academy. 

We waited almost a year before enrolling in Adoption Academy in the Fall of 2017.  We are proud graduates of the program and can honestly say we learned SO much.  The course curriculum presented a range of topics facilitated by leaders in the Mid-Ohio adoption community. We learned about domestic adoption, private adoptions, public adoptions, fostering to adopt, and even international adoption.  We heard from adoptive parents and adults who were adopted as children.  It gave us a whole new perspective on the process and validated our beliefs around openness (I’ll share more about openness in a later post). 

 

Simultaneous to attending adoption academy, I began discussions about adoption with the CEO of my former company.  She adopted her two precious boys and leaders I worked with encouraged me to reach out to her for advice.  She is an incredible human and I am forever thankful for her generosity.  She took several hours out of her busy schedule and demands of the business to share her story and offer invaluable advice about raising adopted children. 

 

The point of this post is to articulate that it truly takes a village to raise a child and, in our case, it’s going to take a village to start our family.  It feels timely as we head into Thanksgiving week to share what I feel thankful for.   I feel an incredible sense of gratitude for our new friends, who so openly shared their stories, and for our co-workers and leaders who shared their personal networks pointing us in the right direction.  I feel thankful for our community who is openly embracing our decision and for everyone’s prayers and positive vibes.