Lainey’s Family
Adoption of a child with Down syndrome has been our lifelong dream! We have spent the last few years reading the beautiful adoption stories on GLADS while hoping and praying that one day we too would be a part of the lucky few!
We originally completed our homestudy in November of 2023 and excitedly joined the National Down syndrome adoption network. In March of 2024 we were asked by an agency to consider adopting a baby boy yet to be born who has a different genetic syndrome as well as a very severe heart defect. We prayed over this little boy and his mother and gave our best yes. He was born on my birthday, 2024! What a birthday that was!
Fast forward to March of 2025 and we prayerfully joined the NDSAN registry again, hopeful for a sibling close in age to grow up with our son. We received an email about a baby girl who had been born December of 2024, who was currently 4 months old. We received this email on my son and I’s shared birthday! We took this as a huge sign and eagerly said yes. Waiting to hear anything for a full week was the longest week I’ve ever experienced. Then the phone call came that her birth family wanted to meet us via Zoom in 2 days! The meeting had lots of tears and sharing of stories. We immediately fell in love with her birth parents and have complete respect for their decision to choose adoption and could see how much they truly love their little girl.
Then the wait started again. We heard nothing for 4 more days! Ahhhhhh! Then, finally, came the phone call from Stephanie that we have dreamed about for years! “Congratulations mom and dad!” I immediately began crying out of pure joy and when Stephanie asked when I would be able to inform my husband, I laughed and exclaimed “oh I’ve been texting him while we have been on the phone!” I’d had alllllll of these special ways planned to inform him if we were ever chosen and that went out the window in my excitement and he needed to know right then and there! He was actually on a layover returning from one of our sons out of state hospital stays and reminded me that he had guessed we would be told when he was flying home and that I had responded that it was impossible, because it would be 5:00 AM in California. But he was right! The social worker in California is an early bird and she had received the email first thing and knew we would probably want to know. And oh did we!
As soon as my husband landed at home we packed up to get back on a plane the following morning to fly to California where we would meet our daughter and her birth parents the very next day! We spent the plane ride reading all of the special stories on GLADS and couldn’t believe that we could get to share our story too! To become an NDSAN family! At 43 years old! Wow, God answers prayers!
When we met the family there was lots of hugging and crying. I will never forget when dad placed her in my arms and the surreal moment of riding the elevator down with them to our cars. We spent 6 days in a hotel bonding with Baby M, and then had the privilege to share a breakfast with her birth parents at our hotel the morning we were to start our drive home. It was very important to them that we drive instead of fly as she had recently been discharged from the hospital from heart surgery and a Nissen fundoplocation. It took us 3 full days to drive home and we were happy to be able to ease their concerns about travel.
Lainey is truly a dream come true! She received the all clear from the cardiologist and is healthy! She doesn’t need any other surgeries and successfully takes a bottle along with her G tube feedings. We will always be able to tell her about how her older brother taught us everything we needed to know over the last year in order to properly care for her medical needs. He was already looking out for his little sister! We were able to just walk right in and immediately know how to parent her because of all of the health issues we have experienced with him.
We have been home for 2 weeks and Lainey is the sweetest, happiest baby we have ever met! She makes great eye contact, loves snuggles, reaches for everything and has a huge fascination with her dad’s beard. And yes, we are absolutely enjoying dressing her up in the cutest girl clothes ever.
