Our journey over the last year and a half has been one that we never thought we'd have to face but in the end turned into a blessing in disguise. In April 2014 Kelsey was diagnosed with a rare genetic connective tissue disease called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. While the diagnosis didn't surprise us, as it had taken 22 years to receive a correct diagnosis, the recommendations by the specialists were unexpected. After much consideration and thought nearly all of Kelsey's specialists recommended that we not attempt to conceive our own biological children. The risk of passing along the EDS gene is over 50% and there was a high risk of miscarriage and damage to Kelsey's body during pregnancy.
Some may think that adoption was our "Plan B", but in reality, we've realized that adoption has always been God's plan for us, we just didn't realize it until Kelsey's diagnosis. While EDS is a part of our story, it's not the only part of our story. We truly believe that we have been called to adoption and specifically called to adopt a baby girl. We have prayed over and over again for God's direction throughout our journey and that is how we came to infant domestic adoption.
In June 2015 we joyfully announced to our friends and family that we were starting the adoption process. We even had pictures taken to commemorate the start of our adoption journey. We knew from the beginning that we wanted to create an identity for our little one and decided to start speaking her name from the very beginning, Abigail. Waiting for Abigail became an identity for our adoption process and we feel it has connected our community to our adoption.
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