Going backwards a little....maybe a little graphic or TMI

OK I never fully explained how we found ourselves on this crazy journey called international adoption so I thought I would explain it a little and you can decide for yourselves if we are crazy or like we believe on a path that was chosen for us.

When Jared and I finally had our first date after a few months of emailing back and forth and using my space, yes my space to chat we talked that first night about our future together. Seems kinda crazy huh but after only a few months of emails and maybe three short phone conversations when we finally  met in person we both felt that spark and just knew that this was it we were meant to be together. We talked that very night about both having biological kids and adopting we didn't specify what type of adoption we just both agreed we wanted to adopt after having a bio child together. Well we got a married a few months later and started trying to get pregnant right away after a year of nothing we started looking into adopting from the foster care system I did google search for adoption photo listings and found not only the TX website for kids in foster care but I also found the link to Reece's Rainbow. I looked at all those kids with special needs and my heart just broke but we not financially able at the time to pursue adoption unless it was through the state so we researched it more and kept trying to get preggo too. After almost two years of trying I finally went to the doctor and had a bunch of tests run, the doctor and I discussed fertility treatments and I told her that Jared and I's view on fertility treatment was that we would take a pill or something simple like that but we were not going to subject ourselves to procedures and shots to have a biological child we didn't need that connection that we could adopt a child and love them just the same. She said OK great when we get all these test results back in a few weeks you can come in and we'll start your fertility treatments. Well when the test results came in I had an abnormal pap smear so I had to go back for more tests when they came back I had severe cervical displasia stage 3. Basically its what develops into cervical cancer and of course untreated it can spread just like any other cancer. So over several months I had several in office procedures where they would cut out part of my cervix that had the bad cells on it but it kept coming back and every time it came back it was spreading toward my uterus. The last procedure I had done she cut out about an inch of flesh from my cervix and the mouth of my uterus. Two weeks after that procedure when I went in to be checked and the pap smear came back abnormal again my doctor recommended a total hysterectomy. I was in shock, I really believed that that last procedure had gotten everything and that we would be getting pregnant soon. Now in between all these procedures I was having we did adopt Kaeden he was born in July 2010 and we brought him home at 1 day old. When she told me I needed a hysterectomy he was about 4 months old. I had the surgery in early January 2011. I was heartbroken about having to let go of the dream of having another pregnancy I still knew it didn't mean we were done growing our family but it just meant no bio kids for us and that was really hard to give up.

So we focused on me getting well and I am next month will be two years since my surgery and I am back to only having to see my gyno once a year instead of every three months like I have been doing for almost two years. When she got my pathology report back from the surgery she said she was glad I didn't fight her on her recommendation for a hysterectomy because it came back as carcinoma in situ. In other words I would have ended up having full blown uterine cancer and it was an aggressive type.

Fast forward to the spring of 2011 when we decided it was time to start the adoption process again for another child or two. We went through DePelchin because we wanted to adopt a child from the foster care system closer to Ashlyn's age. We went through all the classes and trainings and after months of all that we found out that DePelchin also had a newborn adoption program so looked into it also. We wanted to be open to both but the foster care side could never get it together to finish our paperwork so we could actually get placements of kids in our home. I emailed several people for weeks and called every number they had listed and never got anywhere with them so we eventually gave up and just went with the infant program that was late Sept 2011 we were matched with Savannah's birth mom late Dec 2011 she was born very early Feb 2012. During all this time I have always looked at Reece's Rainbow from time to time and read about the families adopting and thought in the back of my mind I want to do that but I never really thought it would happen.

Over the past year I really started paying attention to Reece's Rainbow and those families blogs and reading about the conditions the kids were living in just broke my heart and opened my eyes. So we started doing something I became a prayer warrior and a guardian angel for them, I joined the face book group and started donating to the families fundraising and praying for them and that's how I found out about hosting an orphan. Another adoptive family posted in our Reece's Rainbow face book group last summer that a 9 year old girl still needed a host family. I thought sure why not, maybe this will show us if we can adopt from overseas. Jared was reluctant because of the amount of travel and the enormous costs involved in international adoption. I pretty much made him say yes to hosting, he knew how much I wanted to and if he said no it would cause an issue between us so we agreed me more readily than him;) lol It was only about two weeks until the kids arrived when we agreed to host so we were kinda rushed and just winging it, I flew to NC where the kids were flying in from to meet our 9 year old Masha to fly her back to TX with me. Well that night a 9 year old Masha did not get off the plane, a 13 year old Masha did! It was shocking but Jared and I talked and we agreed to host an orphan and this girl was that so away we went on different path than we thought we were going on. The 9 year old was not available for adoption for about a year so we thought if we wanted to adopt her we would have plenty of time to save and fund raise. Well as you all know our Masha is the 13 year old that got off the plane that night. We didn't plan or want to adopt a child older than Ashlyn, we didn't want or plan to adopt again so soon but the man upstairs had different plans for us obviously. I'll write more tomorrow about Masha and Leonid and how it all ties together.

https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Crystals-Creations-for-Adoptions/189209751143940