Tammy and Mark Wondra

Meet Tammy and Mark Wondra. <--- click here to access their blog.

I 'met' them years ago via an internet chat room for the sperm bank that we were using when trying to conceive many many moons ago, back in 2006. Fast forward to 2011, and 5 years later I have watched them struggle more than any human being with the desire to parent should ever have to go through. Although we have never physically met or talked, I consider them to be very close friends. I even would consider them to be on the line of family. I look forward to the day we meet, because it will and must happen.

We have our children, now 3years old and 20 months old, and their arms are still physically empty. Our loses seem so minimal compared to them. We only went through 10 intra-uterine insemination's, 1 IVF and only 2 miscarriages. We adopted Kayla at birth with only 2 months notice, only 2 months after our 2nd miscarriage. We adopted Caden at birth from the same birth mother within 2 months of even knowing she was pregnant only 18 months and 5 days after Kayla's birth. The loss of life and finances during the trying to conceive years through the adoption processes seems like a lifetime ago. In some ways it feels like it never even happened.  We are so happy with the way our lives turned out that those years are so far under the carpet.

Yet, Tammy and Mark still struggle to reach their dreams. The simple dream of just being parents. The one thing that everyone else gets so easily, so naturally...they STRUGGLE to get. They have so much more loss than we have had and I thought I was at the end of my rope during it all.

 I hate knowing they are STILL going through all the heartache that I went through trying to be a mom. I dont know how in the world Tammy still goes through this each and every day of her life. That right there is some hope, determination and strength at it's finest.

As you all may or may not know, adoption is NOT cheap. Between Kayla and Caden total costs for the adoptions cannot be fully counted for. It would be impossible but we have a guess as to around $60,000 combined total. This is to include travel costs, flight costs to and from Guam for EACH adoption, flying to PA to stay with family until the time of birth in which we had to fly to FL, hotel in FL, rental car in FL, gas, meals, entertainment in FL (which we did as cheap as possible) attorney costs, court costs, phone calls costs, paperwork costs, notary costs, home study costs (which for Kayla we had to fly a social worker from Japan to Guam and pay for her hotel so she could visit us 2 times as required, and pay for her meals and transportation from hotel to our house), the cost of mailing documents (overnight priority from Guam which is impossible!) and the costs of getting baby needs together TWICE in short notice! (Thank goodness for good caring people and friends who threw baby showers and randomly showed up at doorstep to donate trash bags full of clothes and toys and also to the random person who donated a generous amount of cash for travel costs for flying back to get Caden!) And THANK GOD for the Grandparents to be who helped more than we could have ever asked for!

This list could seriously go on. I mean seriously. Adoption is.not.cheap. And this on top of all the money lost when trying to create our own baby for many years prior to this and just ending up in miscarriage to start all over again. Its just is sad and seems so unfair that for a simple wish and desire for some people to make families and become parents, they must go through all this.

(And here we are considering the international adoption road in the future for baby number 3! We are nuts! NUTS!)

Tammy and Mark have done and are doing all they can to tie a knot at the end of their rope and hold on tightly until they are matched with their baby. They are currently in the process of submitting their profile to birth mothers hoping and praying that one birth mother believes in them. I hate waiting for this and not being able to do anything about it. It totally allows me to understand why surrogate mothers offer their bodies up to grow babies for families in need.

Please take a moment and check out Tammy's Peanut fund website, Wondra Peanut Fund.
If you see something you like contact her. I have the pleasure of owning some of the hand made items her mother makes and I can say they are great quality items that I will keep forever and even get to tell the story about where it came from with my children. You can even just donate if you wish to not purchase items. Or you can even just send a message of support. That is always appreciated just as much, trust me...I know.

Or if you could, just spread the word. YOU NEVER KNOW WHO WILL READ IT. This my folks is how our birth mother found us. Just word of mouth. It change lives forever.

(one of my all time favorite silly picture of Tammy and Mark)

lol, ok...on a more serious note...