On Becoming a Mama

Near the living room in the house where I grew up, was a room that branched off that our family originally used as a playroom. It has since been converted into my dad’s home office, but during the “playroom years” it was filled with toys and great memories. It was on the couch against the wall, that my dolls lived. I had so many that when they were all lined up and sitting at attention—you know, so we could play school—they stretched from one end of the couch to the other. Even so, if I’d had my way, I would have had lots more.

I remember being in Wal-Mart as a little girl, looking down the toy aisle and finding the perfect Christmas present- triplet baby dolls. Anybody remember the Magic Nursery dolls by Mattel? You know, the ones where you didn’t know if they were a boy or a girl until after you bought them and got them home? You put their nightgown in water and then like magic, it would turn into a certificate that said “It’s a boy!” or “It’s a girl!” I am definitely a girl of the 90s!  But for me, I don’t think there could have been a more perfect toy. The only problem was that I didn’t want to wait the month or so until Christmas, I wanted them NOW. Looking back, I’m pretty sure I didn’t end up having to wait all the way until Christmas for those dolls.

It’s obvious that I was created to be a mom. I was created for a lot of things, but being a mom was one that I didn’t have to discover. From the time I was a little girl, I always knew it was for me.

When my husband and I had been married for about two years, we decided that we were ready to grow our family.

We got a puppy.

And then another one.

About a year after that, we decided to start looking into adoption. Because of medical issues, we knew before we were even married that biological kids would likely not be in our future, so, when we decided we were ready for a baby, we almost immediately started looking into adoption avenues. Talk about overwhelming! Foster? Adopt? Agency? Lawyer? Self-Match? Baby? Older child? Unfortunately, we didn’t have any close friends that had adopted, and so we felt like we were navigating it all on our own, until we attended an informational meeting for the agency we ended up adopting through. We just knew. This was it.

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