Hello,
We are Ethan and Hannah Curtis. We have grown our family through adoption twice, both in different ways.
A few years into our marriage we realized that infertility was going to be a path we had to walk. We began to look into the steps we would need to take in order to start our family. We were at a point where we had to decide the best route for growing our family. Both were costly, and neither were roads we thought we would take.
After a great deal of discussion we decided to try IVF once. When it failed we knew adoption was the journey we were meant to take.
We quickly found ourselves overwhelmed with information. Which lead us to an information seminar at A New Beginning Adoption Agency. We spent a little time to process all that we learned and after a deep discussion decided infant adoption was right for us. We chose to connect with an expectant family ourselves. A New Beginnings helped us with our home study and taught us so much about the process, open adoptions and positive adoption language. Talking about everything really helped us take the steps together.
Creating our profile was one of the most fun moments. We got to walk down memory lane with our families as we asked for pictures of us when we were babies and children. We talked about our relationship and what brought us together. All of our good times and all our hopes for the future.
In August of 2012 we connected with our daughter’s birth parents through www.adoptimist.com. The moment that email came in will always be with me. We hadn’t gotten anything ready. For us we didn’t want to prepare for a baby that we weren’t sure when she was coming. It was a busy few weeks of preparing for her arrival. She was born in Maryland September 20th, 2012. The trip of a lifetime, leaving Idaho as a couple and coming home as a family.
Once we decided we were ready to add to our family once again we chose to work with A New Beginnings again. This time we wanted to connect through their agency which was the right choice. We found that we couldn’t imagine being away from our daughter for a few weeks while waiting for ICPC. Within the year we connected with our son’s birth parents. We received a call March 17th telling us we had been chosen. I knew in that moment our family was about to grow. He was born almost a month later. Joining the family April 16th, 2016.
Two different ways of adopting but each was right for our family at the time. We found that through each process we had to be very true to ourselves and one another. A lot of discussions about what we truly want, can handle and a lot of learning. Each of our matches took about a year which was faster than we expected. We learned that we were going to experience a wide array of emotions and we had to work through that together. This process isn’t easy so allowing ourselves to work through our emotions and fears was an important part of the journey. Connecting with the agency to have resources for ourselves, our children and our children’s birth parents was one of the best things we chose to do in this process. Talking to other adoptive parents has been a gift on this journey that we are so grateful for. We knew the road might be hard but the joy of being their parents was worth the wait.
Hannah Curtis
@alessiphoto