{Down with Detroit}
I was born and raised in the Metro- Detroit Area. I grew up in White Lake, a small town about an hour outside of the city. Detroit was always something of an enigma to me when I was growing up. We only went downtown on very special occasions. I can count the number of trips to Detroit from my childhood on one hand, and I think that is one of the main reasons for my obsession with the city now. Going to Downtown Detroit is amazing. Despite what you hear on the news, people are welcoming, the architecture is stunning and there are plenty of things to do and see. The Tigers, Lions and Red Wings all make their home there. Going to Greek town to sample delicious treats at the Astoria Pastry Shop is a must (and I highly recommend their pecan pie!). Picking a side when it comes to The Coney Dog rivalry can make or break relationships. Photography tours of the city will open your eyes and give you a whole new perspective on our extraordinary downtown gem.
{My Life}
I love taking care of people, so it was just a natural thing that I started working in the Healthcare Industry when I was 16. I currently work for The Detroit Medical Center’s Sinai-Grace Hospital on the west side of Detroit. When I’m not working and taking care of people, I love to cook. I love finding new recipes and tweaking them to make them my own. My husband is a courageous man and lets me use him as a taste tester. My best friend, my sister, lives in Florida. I get to spend a lot of time in the sunshine state spending time with her & her little family. With that, comes the bonus of going to Walt Disney World – quite possibly our most favorite place on Earth. We go there as often as we can, or should I say, as often as we can afford to go. I love the feeling you get walking through the front gates – it always makes me feel like a kid again. I can’t wait to take our son there for the first time.
{Babies and Beyond}
My husband and I married in October of 1999 and after four years of marriage we decided it was time to expand our little family. What followed was month after month of heart-break; the waiting, the hoping, the letdown. This went on for well over a year. We had been checked out by our doctors and everything was normal. We tried for another year; still no luck. At that point we were looking into options to help us achieve our dream when suddenly, I became sick. Sick is such a strange word to use for what I was diagnosed with. I was diagnosed with a cardiac arrhythmia. It’s not life-threatening, but very much annoying. The medication that they used to control it was not something I could take and carry a child at the same time, so our family plans were put on the back-burner for the time being. I very much wanted OFF the medication, so I opted to try a cardiac ablation to fix the problem. The ablation would burn the “extra wire” causing the problem in my heart and I’d be able to get off the medication. Well, things didn’t go as planned, but that’s a long story for another time. All that really matters is that I still have the arrhythmia and am still on a medication to help control it.
A few months after the failed attempt to fix my heart, I started getting other symptoms. Pain, fever, fatigue and joint swelling that would only go away after a round of prednisone, which is another medication you cannot take while pregnant. None of the doctors I consulted at the time could tell me what it was. It was a mystery illness and yet another roadblock to parenthood.
What we thought was a road block was actually a starting point. It helped us to look into other options to make our dream of becoming a family a reality. We initially looked into adoption through the State of Michigan. The agency was not the easiest to work with and we ended up abandoning that route. It was then that our very good friend, Shannon, volunteered to be a surrogate for us. We were beyond excited about taking her up on her offer!
We had started investigating how exactly to go about surrogacy in Michigan when I received another call; this time from one of our very best friends, Jen. Her niece, Courtney, had just discovered that she was pregnant. She was not ready to become a mother and she did not want to terminate the pregnancy. She was looking into adoption. She wanted to talk to me.
We met for dinner one night last September and things went well. We were on the same page, so to speak, in regards to the adoption – we all wanted an open adoption. She was OK with us attending check-up appointments and ultrasounds throughout her pregnancy. We could keep in touch via phone and Facebook in-between appointments. We could develop a relationship, which we’ve done over these last eight months, and we have all come to love and respect one another. On May 29th 2014, our courageous, beautiful and selfless birth mother gave birth to the most beautiful baby boy, our son, Liam Isaac. He was 7 pounds, 14 ounces, 20 ¼ inches long and is the most gorgeous baby I have ever laid my eyes on…although I may be a little biased. He is everything we hoped and wished for over the last decade. He is our dream come true.
