“I decided to trust that a child was out there, waiting for us. Now, I whisper in his ears when we rock at night, ‘I’m so glad you’re here, but what took you so long?’” Wendy said of finally realizing a lifelong dream of motherhood at 44 years old.
Just over a year ago, Wendy and her husband, Ben, finalized the open adoption of their son, Augustin. The road to building their family was hard. There were sleepless nights and days filled with, as Wendy describes, unbearable pain from the uncertainty of infertility and miscarriages.
Determined to see their dream of parenthood come true, Wendy and Ben chose open adoption.
“I cannot describe the depth of love I feel and have for my son,” Wendy said. “Parenting is a whole different kind of love, like none I’ve experienced before, and it still takes me by surprise.”
Together with experienced and supportive adoption workers, Wendy and Ben chose open adoption with a young, expectant mother they connected with through a family friend. From there, a whirlwind of birthing classes and ultrasound appointments helped build a relationship with Augustin’s birth mother. They were then welcomed into the delivery room, where they watched their son being born, and even cut his umbilical cord.
Today, Ben and Wendy enjoy an ongoing relationship with Augustin’s birth mother. Both families celebrated his baptism and his first birthday, giving him his first taste of cake and showering him with gifts. “We have nothing but love for her and want nothing but goodness in her life,” Wendy said.
Open adoption will be a lifelong journey for the Ben, Wendy and Augustin’s birth mother. The greatest gift from open adoption, Wendy says, is the amount of love created by two families for one little boy.
“In the end, we figure the more people loving our kid, the better,” she said. “It is a true gift and blessing to celebrate the life of the son we share, together.”
