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Sept. 18, 2019

An International Adoption Story

International Adoption

An international adoption story can be many things but for most, it is a love story. A story full of ups and downs, one that can come with a fight long fight but ultimately love conquers all. This week Foster Love - Together We Rise chats with Natasja about her international adoption.

Q. How did your adoption journey start?

A. After a long and heavy infertility process, we started our adoption journey in September 2012. In the Netherlands, you have to follow classes about adoption and we started these eight months later. We addressed the need to be approved by a child protection agency. To make sure you are able to give a baby a sage home. Then you need a medical test. After that, we could pick a country and sign in for the waiting list. We picked a Dutch agency to help build our family through an American agency. Because we want to be parents of a young baby as to not miss too much of the life of our child. In August 2014, the paperwork was ready and the waiting began.

Q. What is your adoption date?

A. The day before our son was born we got an email from the agency. A wonderful and brave birth mom picked us to become parents of her baby boy. One day later we got the message and pictures; our son was born.

Q. Please share your adoption experience with us.

A. It took us twelve days until we had permission to fly to our son. And hold him for the very first time. It was without a doubt the best moment in our lives. We had the chance to meet his birth family too during our time in the States. I have never been more nervous in my life. I was scared that she would not like us and regret her decision. It was a very special meeting and it felt like all the pieces fell into place. It felt like family.

Q. What is the best experience you’ve had through this process?

A. The instant love that I felt was the best feeling ever. As soon as I saw him I knew it had to be him. It felt logical that we had to wait so long to become parents and that all of the other things we tried did not work. Of all the kids in the world. It had to be him. Without a doubt.

Q. How has your life changed since you started this journey?

A. We became a family. I became a mother. No bigger love than this love. We did not grow just by one but by so many more. My son’s birth family feels like a new extended family too. It made me complete.

Q. Any advice you’d like to share with people choosing to adopt?

A. There is one phrase that says it all. In the end, you will see it was never random. It was a long and heavy road. I lost hope a million times and had to grab myself together for a million times. But it was worth every second.
What was a huge lesson for myself: the bond I felt and feel with my sons birth mom and birth family is so strong. I could not even imagine that before adoption. They made me a mom. They made us a family. I am forever grateful for that. No matter what.

Q. Do you have any final thoughts you’d like to leave us with?

A. We will make sure that our son knows how loved he is by his birth family. We celebrate Thanksgiving and 4th of July to celebrate his American roots and we tell him how loved he is by everybody. And that she wanted him to be loved and happy and she picked us as his mommy and daddy. That is not giving up on a child. THAT is giving him a future. Trust the process.

Thank you!

Thank you to Natasja and her family for sharing their international adoption story. We are overwhelmed by the amount of love you have for one another.

For those who are in the process of fostering to adopt, Foster Love - Together We Rise offers free adoption day photography through our Framing Forever program. Click here for more information on the Framing Forever program.

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