We found out last week why the birthmother missed her appointment. She wasn't feeling well and ended up in the hospital with contractions and dilating! She has since been released, with instructions to continue on some sort of contraction-stopping medication for the duration of the pregnancy. And she is still pretty strong on the whole adoption plan, so we are reassured.
So, moving forward, we've been doing our homestudy visits this week...home inspection, interviews and family preparation (educational stuff). The preparation part is a bit repetitious, but only because we are extremely well-educated on most of these issues already, having read books and websites about all the issues we could/will be facing.
However, one thing came up that got us thinking...the issue of artificial twinning. That is, raising two unrelated children that are less than nine months apart in age.
Why did this get us thinking? Well, it made us consider what to do about our intention to continue to pursue pregnancy. We certainly haven't decided that there's no hope in that area, because there certainly is. But we recognize that this child that we may be blessed to adopt will need our FULL attention for a time, expecially while she's still in a very formative stage of life. Apparently, the first twelve months are pretty crucial when it comes to attachment and trust with adopted infants.
We don't intend to pursue pregnancy before this baby is born, but now we are considering timing of when we should really start trying again, and I'm thinking that we may put off our efforts to conceive for at least several months. We'll do some "fixing" in the meantime...trying to get my hormones and cycles in just the right balance, which they apparently have never been. But to deliberately avoid that oft-anticipated "fertile time" seems almost wrong after focusing on that time for more than two years now. It's just a bit of a paradigm shift.
I'm learning more and more to trust God's plan in all of this. I'm sure His plan is far greater than anything I can come up with.
1 comment:
I agree that it is a good idea to avoid the twinning" if at all possible. And you'll agree even more after having that little newborn home with you, and not sleeping for a few days!!! :-)
Post a Comment