IN THE BEGINNING... Scott and I knew before we got married we wanted to adopt. Although we did not discuss it, we both were thinking of children of color. We also hoped to have biological children. Less than a year after our wedding, we got to know a single black teenage mom who was pregnant again. We fell in love with her baby girl and then her new baby boy. She had many issues and within a year had given us custody. She then became pregnant with #3 and asked us to adopt him. Within a year after his birth, we adopted all three at the same time. She remains a part of our family although we do go through extended periods of time when we don't hear from her.

Most people assumed we adopted because we could not have biological children. They did not understand that we had never even tried. We had three young children and my husband was content. I had people tell me I would feel differently about a biological child. I knew it was not true but I was afraid others (non-family) might so I was unsure I ever wanted to get pregant. When our youngest was 2, I came off the pill because I hated taking it. Less than a year later, I got pregnant with twins. Unfortunately, I miscarried one and then lost the other a month later. I realized then that I really did want to experience "pregnancy". I convinced Scott to let us try and have at least one baby. A year and a half later it happened. I was pregnant again. This time I had an incredible healthy pregnancy and delivered a baby boy. Those people were wrong - we love all our babies equally.

Our youngest is now seven. We have a daughter and three sons. I just felt that we were still supposed to have one more girl. One pregnancy (and delivery!) was enough and I still had that dream of international adoption. I tried for several years to convince Scott we should adopt again. He always said "if God brings another child into our lives that needs us like our first three- I am willing but I am not going looking for it." I would let it go for a while but it kept coming back. Then I heard a friend was planning to adopt 3 children from Haiti. I called and heard her story. Incredible! I invited her over to hear some more. Scott can't stand to think of anyone being hungry. When she left, he said "Maybe this is the time to adopt that baby girl." I nearly exploded in ecstasy! The very next day, I started making phone calls- Scott started fasting and praying. I knew already if he agreed to adopting that it had to be God. A month later, Scott said we could begin our paperwork.

More later on our adoption story...