“On June 28, 2022, our world changed. I got up to get ready for work after being curled up in a ball most of the night, not sure of the cause. I was in pain and bleeding. My husband rushed me to the hospital. Shortly after we arrived, we discovered that I was not only pregnant… I was in labor!
Months before this, we were in a horrific car accident where I had to be cut out of the car. I damaged most of the right side of my body and had been thrown around pretty significantly. After I gave birth, we realized the accident knocked my uterus into my ribs. Multiple tests with many doctors after the accident never did show our princess. We still don’t know how she hid from x-rays, CT scans, and an exam with the OB/GYN. She just wasn’t ready for the world to know about her yet.
After a day of labor and a lot of panicking, she made her entry into the world. My husband and I were elated and worried all in one. The moment we found out I was pregnant, we started trying to make a plan. We were living with my mother and our older daughter. We were already three to a room. Money was very tight and we had nothing to care for an infant as our older daughter was already a pre-teen. We wanted our baby girl to be safe and well taken care of. We knew no matter how much it hurt to admit, we couldn’t promise her that. We immediately started looking for an adoption agency.
After talking with a representative at An Open Door, we decided we were going to use them as our agency. They started us looking at adoptive families that night. We found ours pretty quickly. They just popped out to us. We were even lucky enough to be able to speak with them that night on FaceTime. The next day started the adoption process. We had a lot of paperwork to fill out while spending what time we had with our baby girl. In just a few days, everything was complete and her new parents came to get her.
We were able to have two lunches with both of our girls and the new family. It was absolutely wonderful. We got our baby girl a build-a-bear of us saying “I love you” for her to take with her. Saying “good-bye” was incredibly hard. It was the hardest thing we’ve ever done, especially because it started the waiting time until everything was finalized. During that in-between time, we were sent updates and photos every month. It was as if we were there for some of it. However, the moment it was done, we knew.
Her new mom sent an email and set up a Google photos folder that she still regularly drops pictures into. We email several times each month and are even able to do webcam calls a few times each year.
Our baby girl is getting so big. White it hurts to miss it, we know she is taken care of, loved, and safe, which is all we ever wanted for her.
They gave her a beautiful, fitting name… Raya Joy. Because she truly is a Ray of Joy for us.”