Andrew's Story
By Eric & Emily H
After years of asking why, we finally had our answers! I still marvel how in a fraction of a second it became clear that my battle with cancer and problems with fertility were in an overall plan to bring Andrew home to our family. This child single-handedly accomplished what no other person in our lives had been able to do for three and a half years... take away our sadness. Despite the fact that it took a lot of tears and heartache for him to finally get to us, he made it! We know in our hearts that he was destined to be our child. From the moment my husband and I held him in our arms and saw his big brown eyes look up at us during our first visit to Guatemala, we were connected. We were his mom and dad, and he was the son we had waited so long to parent. In that moment, he took hold of a piece of each of our hearts that we imagine he will now own forever. It is an unbelievable feeling to know that we could not love this child any more if he were our flesh and blood. Our beings feel complete and our wounds have finally healed.
Andrew came home on January 6, 2007, and we are happy to report that our adoption journey already feels like a distant memory. It is funny because on one hand, it is hard to remember life before Andrew's arrival. However, on the other hand, our appreciation for having our little boy in our lives is still so fresh that we often find ourselves looking in the rear-view mirror of the car in disbelief that he is really here. Sometimes we stare at him while he plays with his toys in the living room in awe that the wait is really over. This is the happiest my husband and I have ever been in our entire lives.
As of August 2007, Andrew has officially been with us just as long as he was without us. While we will never get back the first 9 months of his life, we feel very blessed that during the time we were apart, Andrew received tremendous amounts of love and attention. His foster family treated him as though he were a member of their family. As a whole, our adoption journey was a very positive experience. We definitely see another adoption in our future, but for now we are just enjoying having Andrew home. He is the greatest gift we could have imagined getting at the end of our journey to become parents.