Steph's Adoption Story Part 1

Steph’s Story

Part 1:

I’m starting with Stephanie and then I’ll go back to Jessy, Sammy, Nanno (he has a story too just not an adoption story) and then finally Dani. Steph will be first because it was at the Steven Curtis Chapman concert that I decided to write their stories down – and because it was at his concert 3 years ago that we decided we would like to have another baby! I’ll be writing this in increments as we go and labeling them Steph’s Story. The problem with a blog is as you go back you have to read from the bottom up – so I guess I’ll number them like they do on GirlTalk! If anyone knows Dani’s story it might take me years and years and it might have 1000 parts. The bummer is that I had it all written down, not backed up and my computer crashed. Sometimes I wonder if God had it that way so I would remember the good and forget some of the hard…anyway that is for another time. For now…here is Steph’s story. I’m sure I’ll remember things as I go and will come back and edit this…

After Dani’s adoption, which was a costly, three year battle through adoption court, family law courts and finally the court of appeals (we won by the way…), we were basically thinking we were done adopting…. Sometimes I felt like I missed out on the first 1 ½ years of Dani’s life because the storm was raging during that time. We were in and out of court, the emotional battle was strong, Dani was constantly on visits with the father and we were battling things daily – 24/7. After we won the case and as time went on, I desired one more baby to remember what it was like to have one “normally!” Robert was still pretty spent – emotionally and financially – and was thinking that we would only have another baby if I got pregnant. When Dani was born, I had my first miscarriage at 6 weeks pregnant. I had three more miscarriages during the 10th week of pregnancy – the baby would be fine up to week 10 (as we would go in for checks) and then one day during the 10th week it’s heart would simply stop. The doctors felt there was something wrong with the DNA for the 10th week of gestation and there was nothing that could be done about it. I didn’t like miscarrying (for obvious reasons!)– nor all the sickness, weight gain and surgery that went with it. As time went by, and I wasn’t getting pregnant I kept praying that we would adopt again. Robert was pretty firm in his decision to only have a child if I got pregnant (he still thinks that by the way so if I end up pregnant at 50…). During early summer 2004, Bonnie called to ask me about a birthmom. She was different than our other birthmoms as she was a couple of years older than me. I told her Robert wasn’t ready but for her to keep us in mind anyway for my sake! I’m always interested in a baby no matter what! She said she didn’t think it was for us and then we didn’t hear from her again…I kept bugging her to keep her eyes open for our possible baby - Bonnie would say, “I know Tracy – I’ll look for the “Dodson” tattooed on its booty!” Late that summer we finally gave all our baby stuff away – crib, carseats, clothes, everything…