A little about us....

OK, so I was sitting here thinking about this whole blog thing, and I realized that I probably should tell you a little about us and share our story with you - as to us, it's been quite a journey! Chris and I met in August of 1999 at Camp Can Do, a camp for children with cancer. Chris was a volunteer counselor there and I was there working as a pediatric oncology nurse. We hit it off tremendously and both share a passion of caring for children with cancer which was amazing! Most people that hear I care for kids with cancer ask how I can do it every day - so I was happy and thrilled to be marrying someone that understood. Chris survived Stage 4 Non Hodgkins Lymphoma when he was 6 years old!!! Chris was in the Navy when we met, so our dating time was spent traveling between Hershey and Virginia Beach! We got married December 30,2000 in a huge snowstorm outside Philadelphia. To say we had a fairytale wedding would be putting in mildly. The entire day was filled with so much love from family and friends - it was a day to remember! And, of course Camp Can Do became something that we would continue to be a part of every year!

Little did we know that the next few years would present some hurdles. My Dad died suddenly and unexpectedly on Valentine's Day 2002 at 55 years old, and the next few years taught us some very important lessons about life! My brother, who has some special needs, has always lived at home with my Mom and Dad. We then needed to spend a lot of our time helping them and making a lot of trips back and forth for many months! This was also a very hard time for our faith.

During this time, Chris and I tried very hard to conceive a child. We figured we were too stressed, and never really went down the whole fertility road. In 2004 we had some testing done, and learned we would probably never be able to get pregnant. On New Year's Day 2005, my grandmother died suddenly after a heart attack, so our time was then spent again helping at home. Little did we know that I was also experiencing medical problems, had severe endometriosis, and would be undergoing a major surgery with a bowel resection in December 2005. With the amazing support of Chris and our friends and families, we got through that time. As a family especially, we were getting closer and closer which was amazing. Our faith was also getting stronger and stronger. God was carrying us through each difficult moment.

The next part of our journey was my godmother being diagnosed with breast cancer. We had no history of breast cancer in our family, so this was a new world to us. I tried to become available to her and made a few trips to New York City in this time. She is now a survivor and is doing wonderfully, but she did have a very tough road to travel! She finished treatment in 2007 and we were all ready to have a celebration of life when my Mom suddenly was hospitalized after choking on a piece of meat in November. She had a procedure done to get the meat out of her esophagus which actually made a hole in her esophagus and made her extremely sick. She was flown to Thomas Jefferson Hospital where she spent 3 weeks in the intensive care unit, and 3 more weeks in rehab. learning to walk again. During these 7 weeks, I moved back home and cared for her and my brother. During that time, my husband was working here back at home - but we still managed to stay very strong as a couple. We had had many conversations about adoption and knew that we were going to begin the adoption journey. We had done our research, visited with agencies and had our hearts set on adopting a little girl from China. We had even selected a name - HOPE, as hope is something we never lost through our difficultities in life. Our plan was to send in our paperwork after our 30th birthdays in 2007, but that got put on hold when my Mom was hospitalized. It was OK though because God had another plan for us.

My Mom came home December 23, 2007 and it was the best gift to have her home with us! There had been many moments when the doctors did not think she was going to survive - but we knew she was too tough to give up!!! Christmas was extrmemly special that year for the gift of life with her - and my little sister had just found out she got into medical school! Let's talk about some answered prayers!!! On Christmas Day - Chris gave me the best gift of all! He had known how stressful the past few months had been, but he knew that we wanted to adopt and start a family. He wrapped up the application to La Vida International with a big sticky note that said "Let's do it - NOW!" with a book on International Adoptions! He also had a Cinderella carriage with the quote "May our dreams all come true" attached to the box! After many tears fell, we knew that the time was right for us to make this dream a reality!

We sent off our application within the next week - and got our acceptance to submit more paperwork on Friday, January 12th! We were having a "movie night" at home when we decided to check our email, and I must admit - we were thrilled! The next few months were spent trying to get all of our paperwork together in preparation for our dossier to be sent to China. We knew we were in for a long wait - but we knew our Hope was going to be worth it! Our dossier was finally logged in on July 26, 2007.

In August of 2007, I began having more trouble with my endometriosis and had to undergo a hysterectomy in September. The emotions were unbelieveable as I was only 30 years old, but I knew with the pain I was in that I needed to do something. We also knew that our child was out there somewhere waiting for us, but I still don't think anything prepared me for the feelings of loss I felt thinking about the surgery. I prayed for my emotions more than anything, but I didn't know I was about to spend 5 out of 6 weeks in the hospital as a result of surgical complications. Now that I am fully recovered from the surgery, I can look back and be very thankful that I am healthy and strong once again - ready to become a Mom!!! My poor husband though - that was another almost 2 months without his wife at home. His strength always amazes me, and I thank God for him every day. NO ONE could ask for a better husband! My sister also helped me through this time as she took time off from medical school to be at my side when I needed her most! My Mom also touched me at this time more than she will ever know, and our other family members and friends blessed us with so many things during this time - God was working through all of them to get us through....

OK - now we are in 2008, and we are adopting a little boy!!!! I know my first blog kind of told the story about how we got here, but it's still rather unbelievable to think that we are at this point in our lives. Matthew Christopher is going to be our son, our first child, our answered prayer, our GIFT FROM GOD!

Please enjoy our journey, and thank you for sharing with us!
Love,
Melissa