The Disruptive Hope Fund is thrilled to announce we've helped a 3rd family realize their dreams to adopt after experiencing a disrupted match. Tyler and Brianna welcomed their son Owen in November. We are so excited for Tyler to share their story with you!
To Friends of Disruptive Hope -
It was 2020 when we decided we wanted to grow our family of 3 into a family of 4 through adoption. After watching close family go through the process, we were excited for what we thought would be a short journey ahead. In December, we announced to our families by our (then) 1 year old wearing a big sister shirt. The plan was to have our kids 2 years apart. We worked diligently through the process to be ready for our son/daughter. When we were finally approved, we received what seemed like endless profiles only to receive emails saying, “Thank you for your yes, but this birth family has chosen another adoptive family.”
One year passed and we had nearly given up hope. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be. Bri went on a friend’s trip to New York City and mourned her lifelong dream of adoption. The thought of reapplying, doing background checks, and getting references all over again seemed daunting. After picking her up from the airport we went for a walk discussing what was next. We were expiring with our agency/home study that next day. About 30 minutes into that walk, Bri’s phone rang…we got the call. “You’ve been selected.” It was divine intervention that we were selected by a family hours before we expired.
We quickly set a call with our social worker and the family. From there Bri messaged with the mom daily leading up to the birth 5 months out. We made a 9-hour drive to meet them. We met their kids and they met our daughter (now 3). They told her how she’d be an amazing big sister. It was a great meeting and we were excited. Fast forward, it was time to head across state for the birth. We rented a Suburban and loaded it to the brim. About 6 hours into the drive, we got the call. “We’ve decided to parent this little peach.” While we love this family and respect their decision to parent, after so much waiting, hope, and anticipation it in many ways felt like a bad dream. We turned around to go home. How would we move forward? We worked on our frustration, anger, hurt, and had a call with our agency. We were told that if we matched again, the agency would do what they could to mitigate costs, but we would most likely owe more money, which felt crippling.
We were later connected to Disruptive Hope who offered to help refund what was lost. Learning this gave us confidence to move forward. Then, about 2 years to the day we began this journey, we got a call that we were finally chosen. We met the mom we matched with and a week later she had our son Owen Chapman. We are beyond grateful for the generosity of Disruptive Hope not only financially, but emotionally in walking through the ups and downs of a disrupted adoption. Going through this process wasn’t easy, but now we have our son and couldn’t imagine life without him. If you are reading this and going through a difficult situation, know there is hope and people and resources to help. Someday, we hope to give back to Disruptive Hope, but now we are beyond grateful for the support and love they’ve shown.
With Love - Tyler & Brianna
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