My husband and I met while working at a residential facility for abused and traumatized children. There were many kids in foster care who needed good homes. My husband and I had always wanted to adopt but we always came back to it would happen “someday.”   We spoke about waiting until our other two children were a bit older before adopting a child. When I was 38 years old, I got a phone call out of the blue from a family member. The family member was young and not ready to have a child. They said they were 6 months along and wanted to give the baby boy up for adoption, but asked and hoped that my husband and I would want to adopt him. We had a 5 and 7-year-old at the time and had made the decision to be done having biological children, yet the linger for wanting to adopt was always there. We felt we were in a good place to have another child, and we did not want to see this upcoming baby boy leave the family. My husband and 2 children agreed to take the baby. ...

I was 14 years old when I found out my 16-year-old sister was pregnant. I was forced to witness the realities of the stress a pregnancy could do for a young teenager. I made my mind up at 14 that I was not going to be a teen and pregnant because it looked hard, even with a family filled with love and support. When I finally made the decision to become pregnant it was hard for me to wrap my mind around the concept. I had spent my entire adult sexual life trying not to get pregnant, and now I was supposed to be ok with getting pregnant. Once I got pregnant, I would have to announce it, and then everyone would know my husband and I had sex! I know this sounds odd, but that was thought that ran through my head. Of course, everyone knows most newlyweds have sex, but to basically announce it was weird for me.  I was nervous and naive about how long the process was going to take. My husband and I had made an agreement, once we got married we would start trying to have a baby. I ha...