The Macks and Cheese

2 Macks looking for a little "cheese" to join our family.

Like so many other families, our journey to have a family didn't go like we had planned; but we are excitedly nervous to begin this adventure.  

My name is Brittney Mack.  I am a 5th Grade teacher.  I've always enjoyed working with children and have found working with this age group is exactly where I am supposed to be in my career.  I grew up playing a variety of sports and still enjoy watching them and cheering on all the teams.  I'm a huge movie person and love all things FRIENDS.

My husband is Logan Mack.  He is a software implementation specialist.  We are very lucky that he gets to work from home every day.  He enjoys all things gaming, whether it is online or a great board game.  He loves to learn and his always listening to podcasts to learn as much as he can.

The Macks are a cat family.  There are currently 3 little furballs running around the house.  Both of us enjoy traveling and learning about new places but also enjoy quiet nights at home.  We are both very close to our families and enjoy spending time with them.  We have a younger niece and nephew we see a few times throughout the week.  Both of us love being LoLo and BB to them, but are looking forward to being mom and dad.

Logan and I had always wanted to have a child of our own and we knew that might be difficult for us.  I was diagnosed with PCOS at the age of 17 and had been on birth control since the age of 12 for complications related to PCOS.  We were prepared for a difficult road to start a family, but weren't prepared for a battle we couldn't win.

After the first couple years of struggles, we sought out some fertility help.  We tried a couple of rounds of fertility medication, but it only made my body worse.  We were sent to a specialist who had the next course of action, but we had this overwhelming feeling that this wasn't what we were supposed to do.  Throughout the process, we were never able to get pregnant. My body started to do everything opposite it is supposed to do when trying to conceive.  After many appointments, medications, and no luck; we had to make a hard decision.

Many discussions later, I underwent 2 D&Cs and a uterine ablation to save my health.  We knew that this meant conceiving a child wasn't going to be part of our story anymore.  For about a year, we grieved.  We grieved for the loss of a baby announcement.  We grieved for the loss of naming our future child.  We grieved for the loss of "firsts" we wouldn't get to witness.  We took time to find ourselves again and had a new plan.

We sought out foster care.  The plan was always to have one of our own and adopt a child.  We thought this was the path we should be on because we would be able to still fulfill part of our plan.  Logan and I filled out the paperwork, passed our home study, had many background checks completed, and were officially licensed foster parents.  Five months after being licensed, we had our first placement.  A toddler was placed with us and he was amazing.  However, we  knew he wasn't ours forever.  He actually already had the perfect forever home waiting for him, and we didn't want to disrupt that for him.

Once again we were devastated with the thought of never having the family experiences we had dreamt about all these years.  A few weeks later, we were contacted by a family member who works with Nightlight.  She encouraged us to meet with her so she could share all the options that her agency offered.

We met and learned so many wonderful things.  We had many questions, but all were answered for us.  We learned we could still have the things we dreamt of, just in a different way.  After some time and discussions, we decided to pursue a domestic adoption.  We are so excited to begin this journey and meet the little "cheese" that is waiting for us.