Where to Begin

In January of 2010 Joey and I decided to try one more time for a baby of our own. We have been married 18 years and have adopted 6 children over the years and we love all of them very much but still had such a desire for a baby "of our own".  Over the years we had seen specialist, tried fertility drugs and still had not been able to get pregnant.  But let me back up a little bit and start at the real beginning with all our children.  Over the years we adopted 6 children - Marlana and Melissa came to us in 1999.  They were 12 and 11 and such beautiful young girls. After visiting with them only a few times they moved in with us in August of 1999.  There was great adjustment for all of us and becoming parents over night was a big change.  Taking on 2 tween girls was a big job as someone who had not been a parent before but with God's guidance we made it through it.  We found out after time that this was a God moment for the girls to come into our lives. While Joey and I were praying about adopting a child, Marlana and Melissa were a Camp Dickenson in Fries, VA. During this time Marlana had confided in her camp counselor about wanting to be adopted.  The staff at camp started praying everyday for Marlana and Melissa to find a perminant family.  Around this time Joey went to talk is DCS of Virginia about adopting and the caseworker mentioned the girls to him.  Joey and I talked about it and then put adopting older kids at the back of our minds.  We really just didn't think we could handle older children especially more then one.  So we kept praying, but during that time God started talking to me and told me we should meet the girls and he kept saying it.  So finally after talking we decided to meet the girls and when we did it was love at first sight.  After only a few visits the girls moved in with us and started school all in the same week.