When I found out I was pregnant, I didn’t know what to do. I was already a single parent of two daughters, ages 10 and 12. I had a friend who had placed her infant for adoption, and adoption was really on my mind.
I called and talked to the staff at Friends in Adoption and I really appreciated that they did not try to pressure me. They knew I had a tough decision to make and that it was mine alone to make. They offered to set me up with an adoption counselor to explore my feelings.
Even when I had selected a couple to talk with and eventually meet, I let my case manager know that I was still really not sure.
I felt that adoption was probably for the best for the child as well as for my daughters, but I also worried that we had all had a lot of loss in our lives over the past couple of years and I didn’t know if we could all move through something like this.
I really liked the couple that my daughters and I met with, and they were very understanding that I was not sure yet if I would choose adoption.
After discussing the situation with my family and boyfriend, they all said that they would support whichever decision I made. My daughters ultimately let me know that they would help me a lot, and I decided to parent about a month before my due date. I wrote a letter for my case manager to give to the family I had met with to let them know that I really liked them and wished them well with their adoption plan. I know their baby is out there.
For me, I had peace of mind. I promised my case manager I would let her know when my baby was born and send a picture, because I know she cared about me as a person. About a week after the baby was born, she checked in with me and I was so happy because I had been thinking about texting her a photo, and that reminded me to do that. She was happy for me and wished us all well. It gave me a chance to say thank you to her for supporting me when times were tough. I won’t ever forget that.