Keith and Abby's Adoption

In the spring of 2017 I signed up for Match.com, a few weeks later I went on my first date with Keith. He initially caught my attention because of his beard and easy smile. It was on our third date that I told him I had Type 1 Diabetes. Diabetes is just as much mental as it is physical. The sense of failure is always present because the body does not always react how you and your doctors think it should, it is easy to give up on yourself. So, telling people that I was diabetic was always hard for me because I felt I was admitting my failure. Keith seemed to sense my trepidation with sharing and was amazing about it simply saying “ok, cool. Can I ask questions if I ever have them?” I laughed and said “absolutely.” Fast forward 9 months, a few questions later, Keith hit his knee below thousands of Christmas lights and in January of 2018 we became “The O’Connell’s.”

We had never been happier, but both Keith and I had always wanted a family. I had major reservations because there was a 50/50 chance I would pass on diabetes to my child. Knowingly putting that burden on someone, let alone my own child, is my worst fear. I finally got brave enough to bring up adoption as a possibility for us to grow our family. After multiple discussions and researching we both felt a sense of comfort wash over us. Our hearts swelled with the possibility and we dug in!

After a lot of research and trying one other agency we landed on Angel Adoption out of Illinois.  For the home study we cleaned like crazy, paced like no one’s business and stressed beyond normal (ok I stressed beyond normal, Keith was calm) until our social worker came -but we had nothing to worry about, we passed! Since then we have dealt with the roller coaster of emotions, high and lows. We applied for a loan but with little to no equity in our possessions and a high income to debt ratio we were passed on..

Throughout the last two summers we have held rummage sales where friends and family donated our “stock” and the response has been overwhelming. We posted signs at the rummage sale saying, “All proceeds going to our Adoption” which led to donations, “keep the change” comments, and so many encouraging “We adopted too!” stories. As winter comes I've been sad to pack up but WI winters aren’t conducive to sitting out in your open garage all day. I also have a second job at a local restaurant. All in all, we have raised about $10,000 that went toward bringing home Baby O.

We are still fundraising toward our goal and it is becoming more and more real with each generous donation and dollar saved. We are so excited to start our family and thank you from the bottom or our hearts

 If you are able we would greatly appreciate your help monetarily, but we also appreciate thoughts and prayers as well.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read our story, we truly appreciate it!!