Adoption Story: Austin and Melissa

Sometimes there are little bumps along the road and at the time they seem devastating. In the end, when you look back, you see God’s hand in all of the details. Austin and Melissa’s home study took a little longer than any of us anticipated. While it was frustrating, now that their baby girl is in their arms, it all makes perfect sense.  Just two months after their home study was completed, Austin and Melissa were on their way to meet their precious baby girl!  Melissa shares more about their journey to Milli below…

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How we Found CAC - I started researching domestic adoption about 2 years ago.  My husband and I were struggling to become pregnant and we started looking into options for growing our family.  I came across a message board online with other momma's talking about the routes they were taking to grow their family through adoption.  One lady had mentioned CAC and how its a "different" way to approach domestic adoption.  I googled CAC and found their website - I immediately was drawn in.  I loved reading the consultants stories about the adoptions they had helped with.  It was inspiring.  For the first time in a long time I felt hope - I felt like adoption was calling me.

Adoption was a very daunting thing to my husband and I.  We really don't have a lot of adoption in our family, and we were nervous to step out into a path that was so unknown.  After praying and talking about it for months it seemed like, I reached out to CAC to get some more info.  I was lucky enough to receive a response from Leah who was so very helpful answering those few questions we had at the beginning.  We also reached out to local agencies to see what services they could provide.  The big thing that stood out to us comparing small, local agencies and CAC was the wait time.  We were ready to be parents, if we were going to do this (adoption) we were going all in.  We took the leap of faith and signed with CAC, what an exciting day!  We were actually in the process of adopting!!

We started our home study process in September 2016.  Leah was so helpful along the way, telling us what we could expect from the home study.. etc.  She also started helping us create our profile book.  This was sooo helpful, it really took the pressure off of us, she was an expert and knew was expectant parents were looking for in a profile book.  We had a hiccup with our home study in December of 2016.  The day we thought we would be approved, we found out we had to complete a couple extra steps.  It was devastating to us, but in reality it was only a couple week delay.  In that moment though, you feel like your world as stopped.  Leah was there for us.  She had personally been through similar experiences and really encouraged us to trust in God's timing.  In adoption the one thing we learned was to trust in God's timing.. that statement is so true.  If all the puzzle pieces didn't fall like they did, we wouldn't have our beautiful daughter Milli.  She was meant to be our daughter and in those trying times, it felt good to be able to reach out to Leah to give us encouragement.

We were home study approved in early January 2017, what a relief!!  We were finally "paper pregnant" .. what an exciting time, to have all the hard work from your home study pay off.  Leah started giving us suggestions on what agencies to apply to and also sending us situations.  When you see that first situation come across your email, its like the most exciting thing, everything is so REAL.  If we didn't have Leah's help to guide us through those first situations, we would have been very overwhelmed.  There is so much to think about, yes your home study prepares you for this, but it's different when you see that expectant momma's name and that due date.. which most of the time were very soon!

We presented 3 times before being placed with Milli.  The 3 times we heard "no" hurt more than you think its going to.  But like Leah always said, trust in God's timing. 

Milli's Wild and CraZy Placement - One thing I remember in the early days of researching adoption was reading blog posts of stories where waiting families got the news they were matched with a baby already born and they had to travel ASAP.  I remember thinking wow, how crazy and exciting that would be, never in my dreams did I think that would be us!

We presented to Milli's birth mom in early March 2017.  It took a couple weeks from saying we were going to present to her birth momma to her actually looking at the profiles.  Those 2 weeks were the longest weeks of my life.  I kept thinking over and over what she would think about us, would this be another "no"...  I was getting anxious because her due date was fast approaching and if we where chosen, it didn't leave a lot of time to plan.  On a Wednesday we got word that Milli's birth momma was interested in our profile, we were SOOO excited!!  You wait so long to hear those words.  We were set to have our phone call on Friday and to make our match official.  We were so excited and anxious, her due date was only 3 weeks away.  On Friday morning, I received an email that Milli's birth momma had GIVEN BIRTH... I was shocked!  After more emails and phone calls we were told to make travel plans ASAP.  Instead of being anxious about only have 3 weeks to plan, we had no time!  God sure does have a good sense of humor some times.  We had our daughter in our hands the very next day.

Leah was there for us through it all, educating us at the beginning, our home study, our 3 "no's" and our big 1 YES!

We are so blessed by adoption and by Milli.  Even if you have no experience with adoption or have no idea where to start, adoption can happen for you once you take that leap of faith.  You won't regret it - adoption is worth it!

Have questions about domestic adoption?  I would love to chat with you more about working with Christian Adoption Consultants! Email me at Leah@christianadoptionconsultants.com