On The Journey to a Dream

author: Ashleigh

Our dream was simple: we had two kids and we wanted one more. Creating our family initially was very easy. We were fortunate that infertility hadn’t woven it’s way through our family’s life. We also had the good fortunate of an agency who  forecasted quick referral timelines…even for babies. And, we could request our gender of preference to boot.

Aside from the above, parts of the dream included our three children being close in age. (We thought this would be easy since our youngest was 13 months when we started our homestudy.) Unspoken also was the desire that our family would be complete by the time I turned thirty. No particular reason. It was simply a number that settled well in my mind. And being a proactive, prepared planner, this seemed easy enough.

Our dream quickly turned to a nightmare of sorts in July of 2009 along with more than a couple hundred other families. And, we all know about the Imagine Adoptions Bankruptcy so there’s no need to rehash it.

Days of waiting turned to months turned to years and we truly wondered: when…if…how…would this ever happen? The dream was slipping away…our youngest turned two, then three, then four. Our eldest went from two (when we started our homestudy) and of course aged as well. One of the last things we did in 2010 was celebrate my 30^thbirthday. It was bittersweet. We were blessed. I was blessed. I knew that. But the ache was still there.

On May 5, 2011 we received our call.

She, of course was perfect. And she was born while I was thirty. I had my three kids, my dream, while I was thirty. I just hadn’t known it.

And I look now at our three children. I watch them interact. Our nearly seven year old (gasp), our five year old, and our beautiful Ethiopian one year old. And the picture, regardless of how loud and chaotic it may sometimes feel, well it’s perfect.

I never would have pictured or anticipated our family to be completed the way it has been. But by giving up (or rather losing) control of our situation, our blessings abound. We never could have fathomed such a gift.

And, it’s the dream.

It’s our dream.

We just didn’t…we couldn’t see our dream in it’s entirety until it was revealed. In time.

I heard a saying on the radio the other day and it went something like this:

Sometimes, on the journey to a dream we find a new dream.

And it’s even better.

Raising three kids is crazy. International adoption is possibly crazier! After sharing and offering glimpses into her family’s Ethiopian adoption journey to their daughter over the course of nearly four years at www.thekeizerfamily.blogspot.com, Ashleigh now shares her passions including healthy eating, budget friendly living, adoption (Ethiopian especially!), and family life at http://livehealthyonadime.wordpress.com/. She is also a regular contributor to Adoption Magazine.