Our Story

The story I’d like to share with you is the story of the most crazy, the most
incredible, the most beautiful story of our life.

My name is Laurence, and I’m married to a wonderful man named Guillaume and we live in Paris, France. Together, we decided to create a family 6 years ago. We were confident, sure to be parents in the following year. But I mostly died of an ectopic pregnancy.

Then we tried again, I made a miscarriage... and two other ectopic pregnancies between 1999 and 2002. Then we tried 2 IVF. At the end of 2002, I was exorceted and desesparate. During all these years, Guillaume always kept is in his mind the option of adoption.

We met a friend’s friend who adopted in Texas with ASA. Her story made me cry of emotion, I felt deep inside of me this way of parenting was my way. We started our home study a few weeks later, filled all the forms... we were so excited of this brand new adventure full of promisses of a baby, one day.
We met other adoptive parents that all adopted with ASA. Their experiences,
their friendship, their support were very precious to us. They were the live proof that our hopes would become reality, one day.

The first year of wanting, we read a lot of books and magazines about adoption.
We subscribed to Adoptive Families Magazine (very interesting), talked a lot with family and friends about our project. The way adoption goes with ASA is not common in France : biological parents choosing adoptive parents, ability of adopting a new born, may be being there for the delivery...

It was important to explain what would happen, on day. We used to play games
like “if it s a boy, what name will we give to him ? If it’s a girl”or “can you imagine that may be next Christmas we will be parents ?”... day after day, night after night...

The weeks following the first anniversary of our “parents in wainting” status,
I was in a bad mood. I would be soon be 40, no baby, nothing would happen since a year. I was wondering if anybody would choose us, one day. With the time, I thought our profile was not efficient, maybe not warm enough. After a while ASA asked us for new profiles. We decided to put new pictures with sun, children of the family, happyness... ASA ‘s angels were patient and supportive...

And one day, it happened. It was almost midnight when we had that phone call
from Nikki we’ll never forget. We were in the car, coming back home after a diner with friends where we celebrated Guillaume’s birthday...

The birth was due a week later. Were we interested ? Well let’s think about it
for 5 minutes. One, two... Yes ! Were are interested ! Of course we are ! At that moment, we didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl. As all the other families we knew who adopted with ASA, we had our Fedex. Two days later, we had the answer : the biological mother choosed us. By the way, it was a girl.

It was on saturday night. Guillaume made reservations for the plane and for an
hotel in New Braunfels, Texas. I bought a couple of clothes for the baby, and that was it ! One week after the phone call, we were in the plane to San Antonio, praying for everything to be all right. Could it be true ? Were we really about to be parents ?

Of course, it was impossible to sleep in the plane. We had a 15 hours long
flight. When we arrived at the hotel, we were exausted. We couldn’t realize what was happening. We were happy, so happy to be there, and in the same times, we knew everything could change, the biological mother could change her mind... We were about to live the longuest days of our lives.

The day after, we made some shopping for the baby. We really had nothing for
her. I spent exstatic times to imagine a little baby in these beautiful clothes we bought. At the end of the day, I couldnt’ feel my feet. We took some tex-mex food and decided to go to sleep early. But the phone rang. Time was on fast forward again and the biological mother was ready to deliver 3 days before the due day. We decided to meet at the hospital. We were so anxious. Would she appriciate us ? Could she imagine us as good parents for her baby girl ?

We met her husband first, he welcomed us at the hospital’s entry. Then, we met her. What a special feeling. We were anxious, excited, gratefull... she suffered
and I guess she was anxious also. We were strangers and suddenly, we shared
something so strong ! She let us touch her tummy and say hello to the baby. We spent the night in her room. She wanted us to be there when the baby would come. At 10:30 am, the baby came. The biological mother’s husband was holding her left hand, her mother was refreshing her face, I was holding her left hand, trying to be supportive... Guillaume was ready to cut the cord... and then she came, wonderful, pink skin, blond haired, healthy, our baby girl...

What an emotion ! We were there ! We shared the first seconds of our daughter’s
life ! After the first cares, the nurse brought me the baby to feed her. My god ! One day, it happens. I finally took my baby into my arms and feed her. The biological mother let us take care of the baby. She showed me how to wake her up to feed her, she showed me how to change the first diaper also. She was so generous. The nurses were sweet, friendly, adorable with us and most of all, with her and with the baby.

Everything was done to make this time as easy as it could be. They gave me a room to spend the night at the hospital to take care of the baby if I wish. I did.
The day after, Guillaume, our daughter and I were going all together at the
hotel, as a real family. 7 days later, we flight together back to Paris, as a real family.

Today, Charlotte is 3 monthes old, she sleeps at night, she finishes all her
bottles, she smiles a lot, she makes funny noises, she stands her head and her body right. She’s so lovely... she brings so muh happiness in our lives and in our families !

We thank god every day for sending ASA’s angels on our way and for this
wonderfull little baby girl who smiles to us.
One day, it happens.

Paris, 2005-01-12
Laurence