An Adoption Story

By Jen & David Bradford

Lily’s adoption was finalized just last month (October 7, 2008). Jen and David commemorated the day by taking these snuggly-happy snapshots with six-month-old Lily and big sister Ella (3 years) moments before going to the courthouse.

After three years of marriage, we decided to start our little family, but we quickly found that was not going to be as easy as it had seemed. After learning how long and grueling the infertility treatment process can be, we began looking into growing our family through adoption. Word got out through our friends and family that we were looking to adopt, and within a month—to our surprise—we received a phone call from a young girl wishing to place her unborn child up for adoption.

We realized that many people wait years before getting this kind of opportunity, so we immediately started looking for a lawyer. A friend referred us to Nancy Worchester in Auburn to handle our private adoption. We spent the next four months anxiously preparing, all the time balancing our excitement with the fear and uncertainty we felt knowing a young birth mother might change her mind.

Two weeks before the due date we flew to Utah to wait for our birth mother to start labor. Although the doctor said she had at least five more days before delivery, mother’s intuition kicked in, and Jen insisted that we drive to Idaho, where our baby was to be born. Little Ella Bleu was born the next morning: July 9th, 2005.

A short two and a half years later, another birth mother contacted us. An acquaintance of a family friend, she was also looking to place her unborn baby with a loving family. We were excited and surprised at the prospect of another adoption, and at her request, we jumped on a plane to meet her.

The next four months were quite different from our first adoption experience. We had a considerable amount of contact with our birth mother and her immediate family. We were also working with an agency instead of a private attorney – unfamiliar territory for us.

On March 6th, 2008, Lillian Paige was born after what seemed like, and might very well be, the longest labor in history. We spent nine days in a hospital, with the birth mom, her parents and her siblings. It was very uncomfortable at first, but then we got to know the family. I think that made it harder for us but maybe a little easier for them, to know a loving couple would be taking good care of “their” baby. We were so humbly grateful for their sacrifice. It was an emotional, bittersweet journey, but for the second time in our lives, we were blessed with a strong and healthy baby girl.

All families are unique and come together in a variety of ways. Whether our children are biological or adopted, we all share in the love, trials, happiness and satisfaction that come from parenthood. We realize that we were very fortunate in how these little girls came into our lives, and we believe in our hearts that our little family is meant to be together.

Jen Bradford is Owner/Artistic Director of the Northern California Dance Conservatory in Roseville. David Bradford is Marketing Manager for the City of Roseville.