Michael's Story, Part 3

For years, I had the dream of adopting from China and their rules on depression treatment are strict, to put it mildly. When I got that message asking me about my depression history, my thoughts immediately went to the worst possible conclusion -- they're not going to let me adopt because of this little blip on the radar.

To explain my history of depression, I need to back up a bit -- to 2009, to be exact.

After a year of debilitating back pain from a herniated disc at L5-S1 and many failed treatment options, my surgeon and I made the decision it was time to pursue back surgery. I'd worked as an orthopedic medical transcriptionist for a couple of years and I knew the ins and outs, and the risks and benefits, of the surgery pretty well. I knew there was a chance it wouldn't help. Still I was not prepared for that possibility.

When you have a discectomy, they tell you in about six months you'll have a pretty good idea of what your new baseline is. At about the six month mark, I went on a trip to Singapore with my family and for much of the trip I was either laid up in bed or struggling to walk.

It was not what I imagined, and I felt like the world was crumbling. I was 27 years old and felt like I was elderly. It wasn't uncommon for me to have to cancel plans or even call into work because I couldn't sit at my desk all day. I was miserable.

After a couple of months of struggling through each day, I reached out to my primary care physician and asked for help.

Toward autumn of 2010, I was feeling much more optimistic about my future. I'd found a new pain management doctor and although my back wasn't perfect, I'd had a handful of helpful epidural steroid injections and things were looking up. I came off the anti-depressant and haven't looked back since.

In 2012, I had my second back surgery, a fusion at L5-S1, which I'm happy to report was successful and I feel like a new woman these days.

So, here we were, in late December 2013, aching to know more about sweet "Mason," and we'd hit another roadblock, but the worker at Bethany messaged once again and said "Okay, that makes sense. Please have your treating physician write a letter in support."

Thank God for the precious doctor who treated me! I'm no longer her patient, as we now live 1,200 miles away, but she spent her New Year's eve writing the best letter of support for our adoption and had it to me within days.

I sent it off in an email to Bethany as soon as it arrived -- and finally, almost two months after I first saw his face, I got this message in my email:

"Dear Daniel and Kelsey,

I just received notification from our Uganda team that your 2nd doctor's letter looks great for Uganda. Heather will be sending you information on Mason shortly."

Glory! Hallelujah! We were approved for Uganda!

The first full-length shot of Michael we ever saw