Being called Mom: Orcutt mother shares journey to motherhood through adoption | National Life

When Lucas was born in the summer season of 2018, the Fernandezs became his foster spouse and children with the steerage of Angels Foster Treatment of Santa Barbara, also located in Orcutt. Not prolonged soon after, they grew to become his mother and father, formally adopting him in February 2019.

Fernandez defined that she and her partner, Eric, experienced very first prepared to have a few biological little ones of their have and afterwards undertake. But factors didn’t very go as prepared.

“We experienced key troubles with infertility,” she recalled. “And alternatively than expend a long time and hundreds of bucks on processes in buy to get expecting, we knew that this is what we ended up intended to do.”

By tons of prayer and with the blessings of a number of confidants, their journey to develop into mothers and fathers started.

The couple’s prayers were being answered with the delivery of their very first adoptive son, Ezra Lionheart Fernandez, who was born in June 2017 at Marian Regional Health care Center.

Ezra, nevertheless, was born a micropreemie, a phrase ordinarily utilized for babies born before 26 months, or who weigh much less than 1 pound, 12 ounces. He used five months in the neonatal intense care device at Marian.

“Angels Foster Treatment built confident we experienced full parental access to him although he was in the NICU,” Sara Fernandez reported. “We were there just about every working day so he could discover our voices.”

When Ezra’s prognosis was hopeful in the starting, Fernandez mentioned his overall health took a flip for the even worse.

“At 3 months, it seemed like we would bring him property,” she claimed, “then he went downhill immediately.”

Due to complications stemming from his premature delivery, Ezra was flown to Valley Children’s NICU in Madera, where by he died in January 2018 at the tender age of 7 months.

Although the Fernandezs have considering that adopted Lucas and are at the moment fostering an infant they hope to undertake later this yr, Ezra was the to start with to present them the titles Mom and Father.

With a trembling voice, Sara Fernandez described that just after working with infertility difficulties and the death of her initially child, remaining termed Mother is one thing she does not take for granted.

“It really is the major honor for these kiddos to simply call me Mother,” she explained. “I do not consider it flippantly.”