There Are No Short Cuts to Any Place Worth Going

We began our journey to our daughter on April 5, 2003 – of course at the time we didn’t know it was the beginning of God’s plan for our family. That morning irrevocably changed our lives forever in too many ways to count, though we can say that they were definitely changed for the better. April 5, 2003 was a typical Saturday morning. I was up preparing for my day, and all of a sudden, I knew something was wrong. Dave took one look at me and decided it was best if I go to the hospital. It turns out that at the age of 36 years, I had a stroke. 

Ironically, this was the same day we had decided we wanted to expand our family to include children. As it turns out, both God and the doctors had other plans for us. After being hospitalized for several days, I was informed that medically it would not be a good idea to conceive a child. WE WERE DEVASTATED!!! I say devastated because at the time, there was no other appropriate word to describe our emotion. After much soul searching and researching other options of having a child that did not feel right to us, we found ourselves being led to adoption. After all why would a 36 year old woman have a stroke? We firmly believe that things happen for reason. We wanted to be parents and God had our child already selected… I would just not be the person to give birth to her. She was selected as a child of our hearts and she most certainly is.

We began our research and found CWA. In fact this was the only agency we considered. We had friends who spoke very highly of CWA. Before we could begin the adoption process, as I said above, we had looked at other options but again, God had other plans. We realized that CWA was the agency that would bring our daughter home. From the first contact we knew “The right parents. The right child. The right agency.” 

Not only was the CWA staff professional, they were like friends. From the time of our first contact with CWA, until our Gotcha Day it was 18 months. We were told it would initially take at least 4 to 6 months for a referral of our daughter, and a year to complete the adoption. We waited for 9 months and 10 days to hear about our her. From the moment we heard we were HEAD OVER HEELS IN LOVE with her. If it was possible to fall even more deeply in love, it only took seeing one picture of our beautiful daughter to do so. We knew she was born to be with us. Part of her birth name was even my great-grandmother’s maiden name. This once again confirmed, she was meant to be our daughter, and God had a hand in making sure she would be. From the time of our referral until we brought Carmella home from Guatemala, it was a little over 4 months. The timing was perfect - just one week short of the 3-year anniversary of my stroke, we brought our daughter home. The journey that had begun 2 years and 51 weeks earlier, and had led us to CWA and Carmella, was complete. 

Now we begin our new journey as parents of this beautiful child who is truly the definition of a child of the heart. Carmella has been home with us for four months and it seems that she has always been with us!  She is truly where she belongs, with her parents who could not love her more. Thank You CWA!! Thank You Nancies.

David, Lori and Carmella Estelle Mc Kenney