The Dotson Family Adoption

I've wanted to write this story out, even though it's in his baby book, I want to share some pictures from the past year and the story of why today, February 12, will always be a special day for the Dotson Family. This is your story, Tiger. On a Thursday afternoon, February 12, 2015 to be exact, we were running errands in Baton Rouge for the Church's upcoming Valentine's Dinner. We were checking out at Sam's when my phone rang. It was Mrs. Val from the home development office. She said "Hi Mrs. Dotson, we have a 2 day old asian-african american baby boy, he's in the NICU at Women's Hospital and he's ready to be discharged. He needs a home." I had no words. I looked at your daddy and I mouthed "A BABY!!!!" and he looked around the store as if there were babies for sale and asked "a baby? where? what?" So I told Mrs. Val that I would call her right back after I talked to Daddy and I told her to not call ANYONE else! ...

We've completed the pre-application process and training! It's easy to assume that the process will be fast after this, but at the end of training, we were given a list of next steps and it is long! We still have the application process (finger prints, background checks etc, etc, etc...) and then we will have our home study. We have been told that right now the FBI background check takes the longest, so we are getting on that ASAP. Thankfully there are some things that the state required that will be fairly simple to gather. We are very excited, but this "wait" during the process is going to be a challenge. It's been a 9 year wait, so I imagine we will be okay for a little longer. I'm going to call this section "housekeeping notes": Since we have so much going on, we are making the blog private for the duration of this process. If you know someone who wants to follow our story, but we don't know them, send us a little note with who they...

We want to keep everyone up to date on how you can pray. We found out that our social worker actually left Catholic Charities and we have been re-assigned to a new social worker. This was all done without us knowing. We didn't know this until we called to check in with our social worker. It was very frustrating, but we know that God's timing is good. We are sad because we spent a long time pouring our hearts out to this social worker that we had a prior connection with - to only find out he left. This seems to be a common theme in our journey. One that we hope God is using for His glory. This shouldn't set us back, but we are having a hard time trusting these days! We ask that you pray for us in that we need to be more trusting of others, but more importantly trust God in this journey. The other way you can pray is that there would be a need for adoption. The new social worker told Kelly that there won't possibly be a need for another training until the spring. Ca...

For those of you who don't know us and would like more information about us, here is a quick summary/update: Eight years ago, after being married just a few months, we became pregnant with our first child that we lost due to an ectopic pregnancy. We lost another shortly after that. From there we began saving. We decided to try IVF as the doctor was so very certain that this was the way for us to have a baby. We were told that because of my diagnosis (mild spina bifida) that international adoption was not an option for us and we were overwhelmed at the cost of adoption (30-50k). IVF came out a wee bit cheaper and insurance helped with bits  and pieces of it. So we went for it. We lost 3 babies during IVF (a single and twins).  The next year we decided to go through the state for foster and adoption. We felt the need was certainly there and were certified and within a few months we had our first placement. We had "C" for 5 months, fell in love with hi...

It's been 1 year since our lives were forever changed. On August 24 we met C. We put together a video of pretty much every picture we took plus a few of our favorite videos. This was therapeutic in many ways. We want to share it with family and friends. Enjoy!

That title is suppose to be funny. I see myself as neither of the two, but many see me as both. Sometimes I feel like the biggest Debbie Downer. I probably could be titled the Debbie Downer of Mother's Day. I'd rather not be. I don't find joy in this pain. This year is so different. For 8 years, I've mourned the loss of my own mother and for 7, the life of the babies that we lost, but never held. This year, I add mourning the experience of being a mother. I'm not saying that God is going to never give us more children. (I still hope that he does) I'm saying that I was a mother and struggle daily with not having Cotton here. Here's the thing. I absolutely loved being Cotton's foster mom. I can find joy in that today because we have so many wonderful memories with him. It's amazing to me how God provided me with the energy and stamina to provide for Cotton. For 4 months I was never away from him for more than 3-4 hours at a time 2 times a week. A...

Last Wednesday, just a day after my last blog, I decided it was time to reach out to our birth mom again. It's been most difficult to know the exact words to say.... so many thoughts ran through my head every time that I attempted to communicate with her over the last 4 months. I would think to myself, how can I show the love of Christ? How do I show her she's loved and worth the risk? Do I say I'm freaking out? What might end up being a one sentence text or voicemail, takes about an hour of prayer and preparation and lots of deep breaths. She once again didn't respond. So, I reached out to her mom. Her mom always responds.  Her response this time was: "she hasn't told you?"  My heart sunk. My first thought was that she lost the baby. My second thought was that she changed her mind.  Me: "no" Her mom: "I'm trying to get her to call you" Me: "Do you think she will actually call me?" (she hasn't in almost 2...