We Always Knew
After dating for thirteen years, we finally decided to tie the knot. Many exciting life changes were happening to us. Nevertheless, we always knew we wanted to raise a family. Luckily, we both have been blessed with incredibly loving and supportive people in our lives. Spending time with our friends and their children validated even more our decision to start a family.
We knew nothing about adoption, so we started googling. LifeLong came up on our search right away. When we met with LifeLong, the beginning of the process went smoothly. Little did we know, we had quite a bumpy road ahead of us.
The Climb
We were so determined to start a family that we did not realize the deep valleys we were about to travel through. However, determination is not what our journey was about. For us, it was about letting go and having faith in the process. After many failed opportunities, LifeLong was the beat that kept us going. We feel unbelievably grateful to have supportive family and friends who helped us through the tough climb. LifeLong was the cherry on top. They were supportive throughout our whole journey. The LifeLong team would always remind us after a failed opportunity that we needed to be patient and that everything happens for a reason. In hindsight, we can now say with assurance that yes, our child was not ready for us, and she came to us when she was ready.
The Right Fit
We were talking with an expectant mother, and she and Marcos happened to be from the same state. Coincidentally, we were going to visit Marcos’s family a month later. Since we were still talking to the expectant mother, we decided to jump at the opportunity to meet up with her while we were close by. Meeting the expectant mother for the first time was wonderful. She was adopted herself, and she was very honest about what she wanted in her adoption plan. We even got to meet her family.
We went back two months later to meet her again. The second in-person visit truly solidified that we were the right fit for her and she was the right fit for us, so we made plans to fly out a day before her due date. We received a phone call one early morning at 2 a.m. To our surprise, the expectant mother’s water had broken early. However, we took it in stride. Our baby girl, Harper, was born the morning we arrived.
La Luna
We wanted our daughter’s name to have meaning behind it for her to carry with her as she got older. The birthmother asked if our daughter’s middle name could be Luna, meaning the moon. Marcos started getting emotional because the moon reminded him of his father, who had passed away from cancer. His father was a huge lover of the moon and stars and always dreamed of going to space. Luna was symbolic to the birthmother because her own birthmother used to call her Luna. What better way to honor the birthmother than to have Harper’s middle name be Luna? It felt like the sun, moon, and stars truly aligned for us throughout our journey.
The Missing Link
Despite the struggles and disappointments, the view was worth the climb. The journey with LifeLong might have gone on longer than we had hoped for. Nonetheless, thanks to our saving grace—LifeLong and our loved ones—we made it through. Everything happened as it should have. When we arrived home, all our neighbors were outside waiting for us with decorations and welcome signs. It truly takes a tribe.