PART 4
The months that followed were filled with happiness.
Callum was an incredibly easy baby.
He was always smiling.
He hardly cried.
He was peaceful, calm, and content.
In many ways, he reminded us of his birth mom.
Every new milestone felt like something worth celebrating.
Watching him grow was such a joy, and becoming his parents felt like the greatest privilege.
After everything we had experienced, having a happy baby in our home still felt almost unbelievable.
7
Although Callum had been our son from the moment he was born in May, the adoption still needed to become legally official.
That happened in October.
We went to court to finalize his adoption.
Callum was completely himself during the hearing.
He was smiling, clapping his hands, and banging on the table.
Everyone commented on how happy he was and how well bonded he already was with us.
Legally, he was now ours.
But in our hearts, he had been our son from the moment we heard that first cry.
8
Then, only a few weeks later, our family changed once again.
Our rainbow baby was born.
Her name was Remy.
Callum suddenly became a big brother.
And the two babies were born less than six months apart.
Remy turned out to have a completely different personality from Callum.
Callum was calm and easygoing.
Remy was spirited and stubborn.
The first month with two little ones was definitely challenging.
There were sleepless nights.
There was chaos.
There were moments when we wondered how we were going to manage everything.
But underneath all of it was an overwhelming feeling of gratitude.
After all the years of loss and uncertainty, we had two babies.
6
And Callum was already becoming the sweetest big brother.
He would hold Remy’s hand.
When she cried, he would crawl over to her.
Sometimes he would even try to put her pacifier back into her mouth.
Watching them together made us excited about their future.
We couldn’t wait to watch their relationship grow as they grew up together.
But even with all this happiness, we never forgot Miclaine.
Our journey to parenthood had not been easy.
This was never the family story we had imagined.
We still wished Miclaine could be here with us.
We wished we could have watched her grow up alongside Callum and Remy.
We wished we could have brought her home from the hospital.
But we also came to believe that Callum was meant to be our son.
And we felt that, in some way, Miclaine led us to his adoption.
5
We promised that Callum and Remy would grow up knowing about their big sister.
We would tell them about Miclaine.
We would tell them how loved she was.
We would make sure her memory remained part of our family.
We also wanted Callum to know the story of his adoption.
He would grow up knowing how much he was loved by us and by his biological family.
His birth mother would always have an important place in his story.
And we wanted to be honest with him about where he came from.
After experiencing so much loss, we also wanted to use our story to support other families.
Families experiencing stillbirth.
Families experiencing miscarriage.
Families struggling with infertility.
Families navigating adoption.
We knew what it felt like to wonder whether the family you dreamed about would ever become a reality.
Our path to parenthood wasn’t the path we had planned.
We lost Miclaine.
We experienced five pregnancy losses.
We went through fertility treatments.
We began the adoption process.
And somehow, within just a few months, our childless home became a home with two babies.
Callum came to us through adoption.
Remy came as our rainbow baby.
And Miclaine will forever remain our first daughter—the little girl who made us parents and who will always be part of our family.
