Meet Tom's Family
Prior to our getting married, I brought up the question to my husband, "What would we do if I were not able to get pregnant for some reason?" I had always thought about adoption as an option, even while going through health issues as a child. Without pausing he answered, "Well, then we would adopt".
We had always planned to have children and, after ten years of marriage and no pregnancies, we decided to see if there was a cause. The doctors could not really give us a reason for our infertility but offered us fertility treatments. My husband and I both felt very strongly that fertility treatments were not right for us, but we knew that God had meant for us to raise a family. We realized that God's plan must have been for us to build a family through adoption.
We started to look into adoption in the US but were getting frustrated and really didn't feel strongly about it. I was home one day and happened to hear on the radio an ad for a national adoption agency having an information meeting at a local church that weekend. I decided then that we were going to go!! It turns out that a couple that we knew from our church that had adopted from that adoption agency was there to give their story and share their Gotcha Day video. We knew of them from church but had never really spoken to them. Not only did they share their story but passed along that they were starting the process for their second adoption with the same adoption agency.
From that day, we knew which adoption agency we would use and that we were going to adopt internationally. Almost from the beginning we have also felt strongly towards adopting a special needs child. We just felt based on our careers and background a special needs child would fit well into our family.
We received our referral in January of 2008, prior to completing our dossier. We knew from the time we saw his picture that he was meant to be ours. We had been told our son was in foster care, but our agency could not tell us where. We later found out that he was at Harmony Outreach. I belonged to an internet discussion group that was for families adopting children from our son’s province. After corresponding with another parent in that group and sharing information about my son, my new friend emailed me that she thought she had found our son’s foster home because her son just happened to be there as well! She sent me the link to Harmony Outreach’s website and the picture of him with his information. There was our son!
Not only had I found my son's foster home but also the future parents of his playmate. I then discovered I had gained so much more. Learning about Harmony Outreach, the Bentley’s story, the work they do in China and having a connection with my son’s foster family has truly been such a blessing to our lives. We have been so grateful to know where he is and that he is being so well cared for while waiting for our adoption paperwork to be processed.
Now that we are home with our son, we can see that he was well-loved and nurtured while he was at Harmony Outreach. What a blessing he is to our family.