On April 25, 2013 I became an American citizen, June 2013 marked 20 years in this amazing country. I came here 20 years ago to enjoy a summer of fun in Ocean City, MD with some girlfriends. We had no plan and very little money.
After an amazing summer, my girlfriend and I headed to FL instead of home. We started working in an Irish bar where 6 years later, I met my husband. We got married and started trying to have a family, like everybody else; we figured it would happen right away, it didn’t!
After several IUI procedures that didn’t work, we made the decision to try IVF. This brought us home to Ireland, as IVF is much cheaper over there. After 3 rounds of IVF we still weren’t pregnant and my eczema had gone through the roof with all the drugs I was taking. In fact at the end of the last treatment I was almost hospitalized so the decision to stop had already been made for us.
We then decided that if babies weren’t in our future, we would totally switch direction and do something we had always dreamed of and open a bar in Spain. We even went as far as to visit Spain and find a bar that we might buy. Until one Saturday morning when I saw a father and his young son, I knew immediately that I had to have kids in my life otherwise I would wake up one day and regret it.
A few months later, we left Dublin, headed back to the US and started our adoption journey. Adoption wasn’t a hard decision for us, we wanted kids and this was our only option so we were happy with it. I didn’t know what to expect but I never expected that adoption would be even harder than IVF. With adoption, you are very reliant on others to help you become a family; there is really so little for you to do in the process except create a stunning adoption profile book.
We had several almosts but on June 8, 2009, we finally got the news we were looking for, we were matched to a potential birth mom expecting a baby boy in two weeks!!!!! We were excited to say the least. The next morning I went for my morning walk without my phone, when I arrived back there were numerous messages, before I even listened to them my husband called, our son was born two weeks early!. Two days later we were on the way home with our 2 day old son. 13 months later our daughter arrived and our family was complete.
I am very proud to be an American citizen, I am proud to live among the people of this amazing country who when tragedy strikes, everyone stands together, strangers become friends and individuals become heroes. This country has given me the life I have today, my wonderful husband who held my hand every step of the way, my son who lights up my world on a daily basis and, my beautiful daughter who is so like her mom with her curly locks and her oh so stubborn ways.
This country gave me what no other could do – it gave me family. It was here that I first heard the word ‘mama’, it was here that I held my son and daughter for the first time. This is the country where two remarkable young women made an incredibly difficult but selfless decision that gave us the gift of family.
About the Authors
Frank and Grainne are the founders of www.OuradoptionProfile.com, an online tool that helps prospective adoptive parents create stunning adoption profiles.
