Adopting a Child with Special Needs – The Lair’s Story
This is a blog of the
Lair family Adoption story. What an
amazing journey of faith it has turned out to be! – written by Tanya Lair
Chris and I were married August 23, 1997. At that time we knew
we wanted a family. I wanted 10 kids and he wanted 2- he should have run far
away at the time while he could, lol! However, God had completely different
plans for our family, and how wonderful His plans are compared to ours!! We
began trying to have a family after being married for 4 years. We tried every
method imaginable, and read every book out there, took turns standing on our
heads, and still after a year of trying, no baby. I really have zero patience and since I am in
the medical field, I found an infertility clinic, and we began seeking
treatment.
After seeing the infertility specialists, we were told that we
both had severe infertility issues and that even with IVF, our chances
were very slim for us to have a baby. As you can imagine, news like that
devastated us. I had wanted to be nothing but a mommy from the time I was old
enough to walk and carry around my dolls. We began looking into domestic
adoption, but became scared off by the fact that a birth mother would have to
pick us and then she might change her mind. At that time, we never even considered
international adoption, because we thought it was something only the rich and
famous did. We found out that our insurance would pay for IUI up to 6 times. Our
doctors told us not to waste our time, but we decided that we really had
nothing to lose and that we would pray with all our might that it would work. Well……
after one and only one try, and much to our renown doctor’s surprised looks on
their faces, we were told we were pregnant and were absolutely elated. God is so
good!
To make a long story short, God not only blessed us with our
first child, but he quickly blessed us with a second child soon after. Even
during this time, I started doing a lot of reading, and I started watching the
adoption stories on the TLC channel. I cried every time a family had a gotcha
day. I began to see what a wonderful picture of God’s love for all of us is
when He adopts us into his family of God. I saw how that is portrayed as well,
when families reach out to the fatherless, save their lives and witness to
them. So, the adoption bug began to eat at my heart. I began to pray and pray
that if God did not want us to adopt that the thoughts would go away. Well….
they did not go away and it got to the point that I secretly became obsessed
with adopting. I knew what Chris would say, so I prayed that if we were
supposed to do this, that he would agree.
I approached Chris after we had our first two children to talk
about adoption. You should have seen his face. He told me that I was absolutely
crazy. Well, I continued to pray and the very next day, I got a phone call. Chris
was on the other end of the phone and had a tone to his voice I have never
heard before. He said to me in the most serious voice I have ever heard him
speak in, “We are going to adopt, and I think we should adopt from China. I also
found our adoption agency. It is a Christian agency called America World Adoption……†You could
have heard crickets on my end of the phone. I was in shock and literally fell
out of my chair. For God to change his heart in the matter of one day and for
him to say that to me, I knew my prayers had been answered.