Dear Single Parents,
If you have made it this far, then you have made some strong decisions to grow your family through adoption. You are almost there! I know how difficult yet exciting this entire journey can be. I went through years of failed pregnancies and infertility, and waited three years to be selected for a child placement through the CPS program. I kept getting passed up because I was a single adoptive parent. I was seeing the journey very dim before a friend referred me to LifeLong Adoptions. He had such a good experience and I knew it was worth investigating.
At first, I was somewhat skeptical, but immediately after my phone interview with LifeLong, I knew I was working with professionals that were dedicated to connecting families together. They did an outstanding job of making himself available for all of my questions, calls, and emails. My online profile went up right away. Then came the waiting period again. I felt like I could crawl up the wall! I had meditated, prayed... everything I could think of was done. The nursery was ready! I was ready!!!!
I recall talking to Mark Doyle, who had adopted through LifeLong, and asking him how he overcame the waiting period, and since Mark knew I had waited for so long already, he was empathetic yet very sincere and told me to focus on myself, to live my life fully. So then I made the decision to stop viewing the waiting period as punishment, and instead I treated the experience as emotional preparation. Every morning, I would sit with my cup of coffee in the baby’s nursery and imagine how I would feel once my baby was in my life. I would let those feelings set in, and I tried not to judge myself. I made space in my life as if my bundle of joy was already in my life. I adjusted my career to really accommodate a baby in my life. I researched daycare and created my support system of friends and family. I started living my life feeling that my baby was already in my life. I kept telling my intimate friends, “my baby is coming soon,” and I believed it!
Then one day, after only three months, I received the call from LifeLong informing me that I had been chosen by an expectant mother. It was an unusual situation because the baby was coming within a few days. LifeLong was amazing at giving me all the details about the expectant mother and guiding me step by step. I went from waiting and waiting… to rushing at the drop of a dime to witness my baby’s birth. I drove to meet the expectant mother Megan. She was sweet, open, and completely cooperative. I don’t think I could have wished for a smoother interaction. We discussed her birth plan, the type of adoption she wanted, her, and her wishes for her unborn child. I recall she said, “I see this as a gift I am giving someone, and I want that someone to be you.” I was so choked up and lost for words.
We thought the baby was coming that weekend, but we were wrong. I returned to my home state on standby, and then I received a call from Megan two days later that her doctor was going to induce her. The baby was already nine pounds! So I took off again and drove straight for five hours. All that waiting, all those days and nights of imagining, all came to an end when I held my baby for the first time. She was perfect. I was set up in a private room where we spent the first few nights together in the hospital. Then we were required to stay in the birth state an additional ten days. Those ten days were the moments I will remember my entire life.
My intention for sharing my experience is to give a new perspective to any single adoptive parents who are at the brink of giving up. Dreams come true! LifeLong Adoptions not only handled everything with an outstanding level of professionalism, they are all emotionally attached and dedicated to uniting family through the process of adoption. I will definitely work with LifeLong again in the future when it’s time for number two.
Here are some tips to prepare for this journey as a single adoptive parent:
- Continue living your life and doing things that bring you joy.
- Make room for the baby — emotionally, spiritually, and physically.
- Have a good support system, someone that can house sit, pet sit, or sit with you in a hotel room, if your adoption requires you stay away from home.
- Connect with that feeling of already being a parent. It’s a shift, do it often.
- Talk to anyone that will listen to you and your dreams of adoption and that can give you positive reinforcement to get through the waiting period.
- Stay open. Allow things to unfold naturally. After all, it’s a gift someone is giving you.
- Lastly, never give up. You will soon get that bundle of joy.
I wish you all the love and success in your adoption journey. All the hard steps are worth it! Trust me, the first time your baby smiles at you, you will forget everything that happened before that day.
Kind Regards,
Yissell