Jaspain

I am a birthmother, and just recently a mother to my second first born! I am very family oriented, and I love spending time with my husband and daughter Mackenzie. I just recently joined the Abrazo Family, as the Maternity Services Coordinator.

I come from a legal background (much like Audra). I have my Associate's Degree in Paralegal Studies, and my Bachelor's Degree in Criminal Justice with a Minor in Legal Studies. I have some graduate hours in Public Administration with a concentration in Non Profit Organizations, but I put my Master's Degree on the back burner when I had my beautiful daughter last year. (I was working part-time as an Admin./Development Coordinator when I applied for this position. I became really excited when I saw the posting, because as a birthmom, I knew I would be able to empathize.)

A little more about my open adoption story...

I placed my son for adoption in January of 1996. I was a teen mom, who was very naive and I was no where near ready to parent my son Stephen Isaac. I was in high school and hid my pregnancy so well that no one knew I was pregnant until a month before my son was born when my mother asked me "are you pregnant?" I had no prenatal care until the last 4 weeks of pregnancy, and still the only people who knew I was pregnant when my son was born were my parents, sister, social worker, and doctor's office. I must have been ashamed at first, because it took a year before I was ready to start sharing my story with people. (Since then, I haven't stopped sharing!)

It was 17 years ago, but I can still remember it like it was yesterday. At the time I was living in Richmond, Virginia, and everyone now refers to that time as the snow storm of 96'. Yes, there was snow and ice everywhere!

I had not chosen a family to "match" with yet, but I had looked at profiles (nothing near as wonderful as what we have here at Abrazo). I looked at a photo album with families in it that wanted to adopt.

They basically had two pages a piece to share with me. (It seems like so little now that I look over the profiles we have here.) I remember being interested in two families, but I was not sure which one I was going to choose.

Skip ahead a little bit, and I find myself in the hospital with toxemia (now called preeclampsia by the medical community). That night I went into labor at midnight and my son was born at 8:04 a.m.

During my short labor my mom asked me if I knew which family I wanted to "give my son to" and we both agreed on my son's family because they already had a son in an open adoption. This was EXTREMELY important to me because I wanted to make sure my son would have siblings who were going through the same life experience as he was. (it also helped that his adoptive brother was in his birthmom's wedding, and I knew if the family was that open it would be a perfect match). I named my son Stephen Ray in the hospital, and his family kept his first name the same and made his middle name Isaac. (Stephen Isaac has been going by the name Isaac since then)

Long story short, to this day, this is one of the best decisions I have ever made in my life! My son's parent's are still married, living in Tennessee, his brother is in College, and he is on the path to graduate from high school soon. The last time I saw them was in 2009 when my mom, grandmother, and I went to visit him on a road trip! I was able to see him play football, and have a nice dinner with him and his family.

We still keep in contact, through email, phone, and social-media! Isaac cannot wait to meet his sister, and sent her a nativity set for Christmas last year!

There are so many little details I can still remember, and I would love to share with anyone who is interested, but I just wanted to get the majority of my story out there.