A bit of history - her perspective

We have been married 6 years, though with 2 out of state moves, 6 houses and two company mergers, it seems much longer! Between us, we have three children. Sean's son, we will call him "C", is almost 17, an avid hockey player, and, since he became a licensed driver, very hard to keep up with! Robin brought along two into the new family. "K" is a 12 year old man-in-the-making that loves anything sports, especially baseball and football. "M" is the 11 year old self proclaimed queen of the household. She loves gymnastics, track, and unfortunately, boys!

So, why, you ask, with three wonderful, busy kids would you want to start over with another baby? We've pondered that ourselves a thousand times. But to understand how we got to here, you have to know where we started. It began in 1999, when we were dating. Driving down the freeway, there was a billboard for "Vasectomy Reversals". Sean, instead of cringing like most men, mused that he would be more than willing to submit to this elective surgery. Me, being a single mom of a 4 1/2 and 6 year old, almost bailed at 75 miles per hour. I fought the urge, kept my seatbelt fastened and we married the next spring - April 2000. Our new life was busy, and we really didn't talk about "it" again. After almost two years of marriage, the idea of a baby started growing on me - but only if we could have one naturally - and it had to be a product of "us" - no donor eggs, donor sperm, and not adoption. (Sean had also lobbed out the idea of adoption after reading an article on it) If we couldn't conceive "naturally", then we'd just drop the idea and continue on with our life. With that said, Sean bravely submitted to "minor" surgery in January 2002. With frozen peas in place, we left the doctor's office in Hollywood and went back to our home in San Diego....we were ready to conceive. Fast forward through a year of temperature charting, precisely planned "rendevous", and still no pregnancy, we had a change of heart. (ok, I had a change of heart, Sean was way ahead of me) Let's amend the rules...we'll go see a specialist, but we will NEVER subject ourselves to any treatment that will result in multiples. (you can probably guess where this is headed). A few months later....hmmm, maybe twins wouldn't be so bad. We'll try in-vitro, but if that doesn't work, we're done. During eight months of hormone shots...and hormonal swings...Sean learned way more than he ever wanted to know about how a woman's body works. We also learned that we could get pregnant, but couldn't carry a baby to term. As difficult as that was, to say goodbye to babies we would never get to hold, it strengthened our marriage, and our resolve. We learned how much we wanted to add a child to our family and that the biology didn't matter. What mattered is that we added an "ours" to our already wonderful family.

So, here we are, waiting to go to Russia, hoping to bring home a toddler in 2006. Thankful to have the support of our families, as well as three kids who are willing to embrace a baby brother or sister, the paperwork is done and now we wait for "the call"