Atkinson Family Addition

“You can’t get pregnant?” When we made the decision to start pursuing adoption, we started with a very millennial step: searching the Internet. We were specifically looking for blogs or articles written by couples who had chosen adoption without trying to conceive first. We wanted to find out what other couples’ experiences were like and what advice we might find for the journey we were about to embark on. We knew our search probably wouldn’t yield an abundance of results but weren’t expecting what we found….exactly ZERO pieces that spoke to what we were looking for. Through many different experiences in both of our lives as well as our shared experiences, followed by many reflective and thoughtful discussions we decided that pursuing adoption at this point in our lives made the most sense. In sharing our decision with family, friends, and our families’ friends, we have been asked many times “Oh, so you can’t get pregnant?”. This question, as inappropriate and insensitive as it ...

Decisions, Decisions Once we made the decision to move forward with adoption, we connected and/or met with several wonderful people in our lives that have grown their families through different adoption routes. We asked questions and got an abundance of invaluable insight that no research we could have done would have yielded. We also scoured every website we could find with an adoption agency in the metro area and scheduled information sessions with all the agencies that met our criteria! During all of our research we continued to pray for guidance: that we would find an agency that matched our criteria; that the information sessions we attended would give us the information we needed to make program decisions; and to give us the patience and stamina we need to embark on this journey. After several evenings spent taking notes and drives around the metro filled with intense conversations, and several more nights spent in prayer, we learned a LOT! We came into the process thinkin...