“And then we met her – this gorgeous strawberry blond young lady with the most beautiful green eyes looking at us from across the table. She had one question for us. Our knees were shaking just getting the news. We were not convinced it would be ‘wonderful’ at all. We were intimidated and scared.”
‘Wow, that’s so cool I have 2 moms! May I have a snack?,’ was his reaction at age 5. ‘Aren’t you worried they’ll take the boys back?’ We are not a bit worried. We told him he grew up in her tummy.’
‘I gave birth to a beautiful Chinese baby in which I share zero genes with. HE DIDN’T GET THE MEMO.’
“I now had a 4-year-old, a 2-year-old, and I was newly divorced. ‘How were you able to give up the baby?’ I felt like I signed my life away. They needed to make sure I wasn’t going to go crazy.”
‘We had 90 days to get married. A man who’s never met my family. We both questioned what we’d gotten into.’: Woman takes leap of faith in marrying man who had never met her family
“I remember talking to my Dad after the fact. He said, ‘Ronnie called me to ask my blessing. I couldn’t understand half of what he said, but I told him yes, my daughter could marry him.’ Although, not everyone had encouraging comments. I had frequent questions like, ‘What if this guy just wants a green card?’”
‘The morning we left, I snuck into Olive’s room, kissed her cheeks and said goodbye, never knowing if I would see her again. I never knew how dearly I would come to love such a tiny little human.’
“She would cry many mornings as I cried, broken over the pain she was experiencing and longing with a deep ache for an adoptive family for her where she would know the love of a forever home.”
‘She will live in total darkness. This will be too much for your family to handle,’ we heard.’: Family adopts totally blind child from China
“We woke to a text. These people helping us couldn’t understand how we could move forward with adoption until we were certain SHE WOULD LIVE. I responded verbatim, ‘WE WANT THIS GIRL NO MATTER WHAT. ‘Her piercing blue eyes were mesmerizing.”
‘Despite having 5 beautiful children, I still couldn’t shake the feeling that our family was not complete. I looked around and thought, ‘Surely we have room for one more, right?’
“At only 17 years old, while still a senior in high school, I vividly remember the intense fear I felt when I looked at that pregnancy test. What would become of me? I had always been the good girl – the one that got good grades and followed the rules.”
‘Life with four children with albinism has been quite the adventure.’: Family adopts 4 albino children whose ‘unique, rare’ condition makes ‘our hearts full’
“We stick out in a crowd and draw attention anywhere we go. There are occasions when the pointing, stares, and whispered comments are invasive and annoying. People reach out and touch our children’s hair without asking. We’ve even had to step in and stop strangers from taking selfies with our kids!”
