The Meyer family and their adoption journey

Heather’s Faves:

Toledo Spot:
Toledo Museum of Art

Restaurant: El Nuevo
Vallarta 

TV: PBS Masterpiece
Theater, or some British crime show on Netflix.

Band: “I suppose I should say Old State Line because it is my husband’s band…”

Hero: Maya Angelou 

Favorite part of Toledo:
“Everything! Even bumps and bruises.”

For Larry and Heather Meyer, becoming parents was a long and arduous journey. Heather, mother to Ella, 5, says, “After several years of marriage, Larry and I decided we were on board with parenthood. When it wasn’t happening naturally, we knew that we had a decision to make.”

Heather and Larry decided to adopt for a plethora of reasons, but their friend, Denise Soto, and her adopted daughter helped seal the deal. “We met them and their daughter, Grace, and we walked away knowing that the journey to adopt had been decided for us.” After thorough research and much discussion, the Meyers chose to adopt from China, because, Heather explains, “of the predictability. We knew that thousands of people had gone before us… it was a well-oiled machine.” While the process was expensive, the lengthy wait was the most grueling part for the couple. Originally, they were told the adoption process would take 10 months; four and a half years later, they finally met their daughter, Ella. Heather quips, “The finish line just kept moving.”

Within hours of meeting their daughter, the Meyers had their first conversation about adoption with Ella, who was only 10 months old at the time. Heather summarizes, “In those four and a half years of waiting, Larry and I attended a lot of training. One of the things that we learned was talking to your child often about adoption would make you more comfortable as parents. We knew if we screwed up, at 10 months old, it wasn’t going to compute. So by the time she was old enough to understand, we had all the bumps worked out.”

The adoption conversation still continues today, and Ella refers to her birth mother as her “China mama or tummy mama.” Adoption becomes tangible for Ella when she

witnesses her parents’ friends who are pregnant or breastfeeding; Ella realizes that neither of those things happened for her and her mom, Heather.

While adoption has changed the Meyers in innumerable ways, Heather reflects that for Ella, adoption has created “layers.” She elaborates, “Children are complicated little beings to begin with, but adoptees come to us, no matter how old or how young, with other layers. The biggest one is that all adoptees have loss. It’s there from the beginning, and it will be with them until the day they die. It sounds sad, but it is so real.”

Meyer Quick Bio:

Gigs: Attorney at Manahan, Pietrykowski, DeLaney & Wasielewski (Larry) and Office Manager for Inside Out (Heather)

Extracurriculars: “Photography…whether it’s photographing life or assisting one of my good friends, Nicolelee.” (Heather) 

Music: Drummer in Old State Line and listener of local music (Larry).

Volunteer Work: Old Orchard Mom’s Group, Love Without Boundaries, Families with Children fromChina (FCC), Augsburg Lutheran Church (Heather) and Arts Commission, Sylvania Avenue Neighbors, Feed Your Neighbor, licensing for Toledo Free Press fundraising CDs, Toledo Bar Association Intellectual Property Committee (Larry)

Pets: Thomas and Mavis, sibling, 1 year old cats that were 2 of the 10 they fostered last year.

Hopes for Ella: “Kindness, love, faith, and a wicked sense of humor.”

Erin Schoen Marsh
Erin Schoen Marshhttp://www.erin-marsh.com
Erin is a writer/editor, yoga teacher, and mama to two little ones.

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