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Mandi and Tyler Palmer always wanted to raise children together from the moment they met, but fate had different plans for the pair.
At 15, Mandi was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease, and has undergone dozens of surgeries to manage her condition. At 32, she’s still fighting malnutrition, and has to undergo surgery occasionally.
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Tyler, a veteran, was diagnosed with PTSD after serving two years in Afghanistan, and has been undergoing therapy for years to cope.
The two fell in love years ago, and have spent years supporting each other through the hard times. The couple finally moved to Ohio after getting married, hoping to start a family.
However, Mandi’s condition made getting pregnant impossible.
“We tried for years to get pregnant but soon came to realize that it wasn’t going to happen, nor would it be safe for my body to sustain the miracle of pregnancy due to my illness. We were heartbroken and quickly found ourselves seeking other ways to grow our family and become parents,” Mandi told Love What Matters.
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She recounted their journey together and experiences, maintaining that they were not the type to give up easily.
“Because of the health battles we’ve been given, we weren’t the type of people to just ‘throw in the towel’ and let our dreams of becoming parents get shattered,” she said, adding that they decided to become foster parents instead.
Becoming foster parents was a way for them to decide if adoption was for them, and it turned out to be the miracle they were hoping for.
They met Hunter when he was just eight days old, and they fell in love with him.
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“We arrived at children’s services and there was Hunter, all bundled up in a receiving blanket, and he was being held by our caseworker. He was 8 days old and absolutely perfect. We fell in love with him instantly,” Mandi said. “It became obvious that Hunter was more than just our first baby. He was our ‘medicine’ and both of our reasons to fight the health battles that we have been given. He truly became our ‘why’ in life.”
The couple was able to sign the adoption papers a few months later, and any doubts they had about the process vanished during their court appearance, when 16-month-old Hunter clapped and joyfully shouted, “Dad!” after the judge read out his last name.
The entire courtroom was taken by surprise, but for the Palmer family, it cemented them as an official family of three.
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“We’ve learned that there’s a rainbow at the end of every storm and we’re so thankful we kept the fight,” she said. “He is our world and our reason to keep fighting these battles. My husband said that there is no medication to help his PTSD quite like having his son take our last name.”
“We have learned that family isn’t about DNA. It’s about love!” Mandi added.
Sources: Shared
