Our adoption story

I debated whether or not to write this post for a number of reasons. First of all it is difficult to put into words my thoughts and feelings about something that is so dear and sacred to me and secondly, it is hard to know just how much detail to go into. That being said, there may be some of you who are wondering just how this miracle came to be. So here goes...

It had always been a dream of mine, from a rather young age to one day adopt. I had an aunt who had adopted 3 children herself and I had always looked to her as an example. I had always thought that it was such a selfless thing to want to take in a child and love them as your own. To take one of our Heavenly Fathers sweet spirits who otherwise would have nowhere to go and raise them in a home filled with love. Of course when I was younger, I just always figured that I would have biological children of my own and that when the time was right my husband and I would look into adopting to complete our family. That being said, when Brad and I began dating, it was important for me to know that that adopting in the future was something we both felt good about. Thankfully Brad shared the same feelings that I had and once that had been established there was no turning back. =)

After years of trying unsuccessfully to get pregnant, surgery, fertility treatments, the disappointment etc we felt that we had come to a point where it was time to look more seriously at adopting. Unfortunately, with Brad still in school and funds not permitting that dream looked to be a little further down the line than we had hoped. Until...one Friday at 3:15pm (November 9th, 2007) completely out of the blue and with NO warning at all, an angel with whom I had an association approached me to tell me that there was a baby boy who needed a home and if we wanted him, he was ours! His birth mum was not in a position to look after him anymore and she was considering leaving him at the hospital anonymously. It is hard to describe the shock that went through my body and the feelings that leapt throughout me when she told me about this precious little 2 1/2 month old boy. Not wanting to get my hopes up, I had to desperately try not to get excited incase it fell through or for some reason didn't work out. Yet my heart ached to take this little boy home.

The information we had was so limited. We were scared, but strangely comforted at the same time. It just felt right. I was told that he was 2 1/2 months old and his birth mother was of African American heritage but we had no information on his biological father. That was pretty much the extent of it. Of course the next step was to call Brad and tell him. For those of you who know Brad, he is very cautious and not the type who makes rash decisions so I honestly thought that when I told him about this little boy, he would say "Nat we can't just take someone's baby." When I called Brad to tell him, his response shocked me and I’ll never forget what he said. His response was "Well of course we have to take him." I couldn't believe it. Was this real? Was our dream of becoming parents after all the hurt and heartache actually coming true? Once Brad and I had a minute to discuss it (over the phone) I contacted my angel and told her that we could take him. Then the next day (Saturday November 10th, 2007)at around 1:30pm we picked up our little Gabriel.

I'll never forget the day this angel put my sweet baby boy in my arms and said "Here is your baby." We had finally found each other. A fairytale?...Yes it was, but this time it was not too good to be true. We climbed into the car and I sat beside him. I was looking at my son. It was so uncanny. It was hard to believe that I could already love someone so much after such a minute amount of time. We were on our way to Nana Sandy's house, when Brad turned to me and said, "So what are you going to name him?" So many things were going through my mind that I hadn't even thought about that. What a thought. I'd never named anyone before. His birth mother had named him Gabriel. It was not a name that either Brad or I had ever considered but as I looked into his eyes and looked at his sweet little face it just seemed to fit. One of the reasons we both loved the name was because we couldn't help but be reminded of the angel Gabriel when we heard it. He was an angel...he was our angel. So Gabriel Thomas (after Brads Grandpa Welch) Bentley was to be his new name.

We arrived at Nana Sandy's house and introduced Gabe to some of his aunts and uncles, made a quick stop to see Grandpa Bentley at work and then it was off to Babies R Us to buy EVERYTHING a couple would usually have months to accumulate (now that’s what I call shopping!), then it was off to the doctors for a quick check up and home to have a bath.

The preceding days brought visitors galore and so many gifts. I was truly truly humbled by the love and support we received at such short notice. Needless to say I just sat and held my sweet boy and cried and cried for days. Finally...finally our baby was home. One of the neatest experiences I had was the next day after we picked him up (Sunday) when we took him to church. I was in young women's and we were having a testimony meeting and one of my girls stood up and cried as she said "Natalie I am so excited for you, we had been praying for so long that you would have a baby". Again I was so incredibly humbled and that day in church there wasn't a dry eye in the house.

The rest as they would say...is blissful history!