I know from your story that you did have problems and treatments for infertility, which can be, as I know, very expensive. Did you have insurance coverage for this? Also, then you went right into adoption, twice, which also is quite expensive. Were you financially prepared for this after spending money on infertility (if you didn’t have insurance). Had you saved or were you able to borrow money?

No, we did not have insurance coverage for our infertility treatments. We did not do any treatment without first seeking the Lord and it was amazing to see Him provide the funds as we went through each cycle (4 IUIs, one of which was cancelled and one IVF cycle, which was also cancelled and converted to an IUI). We also were given a grant for our IVF cycle which we ended up not using since the cycle was cancelled prior to retrieval.

I’m not going to get into specifics concerning how our adoptions were funded but I will just say simply that we were able to pay for our adoptions through our own savings and through some generous gifts we received.

I think the most valuable information I can give from this question is that if God is opening your heart to adoption do not let money stand in your way.

God will provide in ways that will blow your mind. I think every one who has adopted has a story to tell about how God provided financially for the adoption, because if God has called you to adoption, He is going to open all doors necessary to bring the child He has for you home!

  With adoption I think one of my biggest concerns would be the lack of family medical history information. Do birth mothers give that information at adoption, or is it just an unknown? I have two daughters with medical issues that have genetic links, so we knew what to watch for. I would think that would be a difficult part of parenting to not have that information. Is it something that you worry about, or do you find peace that God will provide the information if necessary?

Lack of medical history is unsettling at times. We do have some brief medical history on both girls but there are things I do wonder about. It’s just one of those things I can’t worry about though. It is what it is and the information we have is the information we have.

I guess it is comforting to know if anything serious comes up and I needed to speak to either birth mother about something, I do believe I could make contact with either one of them one via our adoption agency.

It seems Little Bug suffers with allergies somewhat and I would love to know if there is a history of allergies in her blood line!

Were you ever concerned about SP not hitting milestones right on time like rolling over/ crawling? I have a 8 month old who isn’t crawling yet. I know all babies develop differently so I try not to get concerned but I still am not crazy about him being a little slower to get it started.

I think the natural tendency is for us mothers to worry if our baby isn’t rolling over by 3-4 months, sitting by 6 months, crawling by 8 months and walking by their first birthday because this is when it happens for the average baby!

Little Bug fell into that category, hitting all those milestones at about the average time for most babies. Sweet Pea hit these milestones waaaaay later than “average” and I did not worry because all babies do develop at their own pace.

Sweet Pea’s doctor did say at her 9 month well-check up that if she didn’t roll and “get herself on the move” by her 12 month check up that could be cause for concern, but around 11 months Sweet Pea became mobile with her little “frog crawl” that she did for about two weeks before she officially was crawling.

Like Beth said (on my post when I first opened up the Q&As), I don’t even think crawling is a real milestone – it is more about baby being able to move themselves from point A to point B!

Sweet Pea is nearly 15 months old now and I wouldn’t consider her a walker yet! And again, I am not concerned. She is getting there – in her own time!

- Elaine