This is a continuation from my last post about our two year adoption journey for our second child…
There we were with the news of my wife having a breast cancer diagnosis. Prayers were already going up to God, only now even more.
All of this started just as we were getting our adoption paperwork and profile completed. Our attention was now focused on her health. We were researching information and talking to doctors.
Getting Some Answers
We made appointments to get opinions from two doctors and were thankful we did. They got all the cancer with the surgery in February, but she would need chemo treatments as a precaution.
At this point, we were afraid of never being able to adopt again. Our faith was definitely being tested. In a matter of weeks we went from struggling to get the adoption process going again to a potential life threatening illness and the possibility of not having any more children.
We were frustrated and beaten down. How did we get here?
Our next few calls were to the adoption agency that helped us with our home study, and to Lifetime Adoption Center. Would they allow us to continue the process after my wife was through with treatments?
Even if it didn’t affect the home study, would Lifetime want to continue to help us – or could they help us? The answer was yes.
Both of them would work with us after she was given a clean bill of health – which came after her treatments. The doctor would provide a letter saying her health would not affect her ability to parent a child.
The Fight
I have to give my wife a lot of credit, kudos, and praise because she fought through it. When I first met her, we were only 16 years old but I immediately loved her attitude, her spunk, her “get after it and don’t take crap from anyone” vibe.
So at this point in her life when she was facing such a tough challenge, she was no different. Sure she struggled, she cried, she wondered aloud why this was happening to her…but with faith, she fought through it.
There was strong determination to beat this. I knew it wasn’t just about her health – it was very much about how this affected becoming a mommy to another child.
She fought through three surgeries, chemo treatments, losing her hair and all of the other side effects. All the while she was trying to be the best mommy to our little girl.
I was (and still am) very proud of her.
No doubt her faith kept her going and even gave her peace along the way. We had lots of help, especially from her mom who came over to our house almost every day for about four months. We’ll never be able to sufficiently thank her for this.
God’s Perfect Timing
My wife got through the treatments. The cancer was gone and she was healing. We would need a few more months for her to get her strength back before we continued the adoption process.
We were ready to begin again. We updated our profile and our home study.
As with our first adoption (and really any adoption), we wait for God’s perfect timing.
UPDATE: Read about how we’ve adopted again!
