Welcome to adoptingbabyevans.com!

So many wonderful people have become involved in our adoption journey along the way.  We developed this website so all of our family and friends could be a part of our adoption journey.  The journey wasn't always smooth, in fact, it got quite bumpy near the end, but today we are the proud parents of a beautiful son.  Every day we look at Carsyn we are reminded of what a miracle he is.

Our journey to adoption did not start in one day,  Our journey began in 1998 when we started "trying."  We were so excited that we were going to get pregnant and we told everyone we were "trying" and try we did...without success.  After two years of being unable to conceive we sought medical help.  The OB/GYN's that we were dealing with with not specialists and did not have a clue about treat infertility.  After about a year without answers, we found an IVF (In Vitro Fertilization) specialist nearby.  Thus began the infertility treatments.  These treatments were unsuccessful and extremely taxing emotionally and on our marriage relationship.  {To read more, see the "Coping with Infertility" page}. After almost two years of these treatments with no answers and no results, we had finally resolved ourselves to the fact that we would not have children...

Then in the fall of 2004 Melissa's mom asked if we ever looked into adoption as an option.  We had talked about adoption in the past, but never really considered it a "real" option as we thought it was impossible to adopt a newborn baby and especially one in in the US.  After this conversation, we talked about adoption again.  At this time, six years had past and we had come to terms with our infertility.  The adoption ball was rolling!  The prospect of having a child filled our hearts with such hope.  Melissa looked through the phone book and online and made several calls to several adoption agencies.  The agency that was the most helpful and information was Child & Family Services, based out of Traverse City, Michigan.  They introduced and explained to us to the concept of open adoption...an adoption where the adoptive parents are selected by the birthmom/first mom and a relationship develops between them that is maintained after the baby is born.  This situation is ideal for all parties involved, but especially for the child as they can know their roots and beginnings.  Our orientation was in December 2004.  By March 2005 our homestudy was complete and we were approved to submit a family book for birthmoms/first moms to look at when they came into the agency.  In May 2005, our book went on the shelf.  We waited anxiously each and every day for the phone to ring!

In January 2006 we met a birthmom...our first birthmom meeting!  We were so excited and nervous.  Things went well, but the birthmom was not firm on her decision to place her baby.  Our relationship never went past this point.

However, while Melissa was on vacation in Florida, the social worker called that a birthmom wanted to meet with us.  The soonest we could meet was on a Sunday, March 5, 2006.  This was the day we met Carsyn's birthmom, J.  (For privacy purposes, we will refer to her as {J}.)  This is where our journey begins...