Sadie and Jarvis Sampson tried for years to conceive – they tried everything until they resigned themselves to thinking they would only ever be an aunt and uncle, until they received a text which changed their lives overnight.
Since getting married in January 2018, the pair has been trying to get pregnant. When that didn’t work out naturally, they tried everything else.
“Ovulation tests, prenatal vitamins, cycle tracking apps, fertility monitors,” the Houston mom said.
“We even tried the unsolicited advice of friends, family, and strangers and didn’t try.We tried, prayed, and waited for 14 months. repeatedly per month. following a negative test, a negative pregnancy test. We appeared to require assistance in order to become pregnant. Even further, we discussed it with doctors.”
But even the doctors didn’t seem to have the solution for the couple and the only concrete advice they gave was to suggest that Sadie lose some weight in order to improve her ferility. Sadie and her husband Jarvis anticipated that this would finally work after Sadie had surgery that allowed her to shed roughly 13 kg (29 lbs). However, things did not turn out as planned, and for a few months, there were numerous failed efforts.
“My surgeon had spent a lot of time describing how fertile I would be after the surgery, but I still didn’t get pregnant. So, at some point, we just gave up. We realized we were only meant to be an aunt and an uncle for our nieces and godparents for our godchildren,” Sadie said.
The call came to her like a miracle that changed their lives. A friend of Sadie’s asked her to consider adopting a child that temporarily needed a foster family because her mother was not able to care for him.
Sadie and Jarvis were dumbfounded. They had gone from not having kids to fostering one and becoming parents overnight.
Then, the Sampsons discovered that the child’s birth parents wanted an independent adoption. Consequently, they called their attorney and had the necessary paperwork drawn up quickly. Sadie then decided to break the exciting news to her mom.
“YOU’RE GOING TO BE A GRANDMA! We got a call about a 2-week-old little boy that we are adopting!” exclaimed Sadie. She heard her mother jump gleefully. After the birth parents signed the paperwork, Sadie and Jarvis headed to meet their child.
They drove to the hospital’s NICU and saw their son for the first time. He was born seven weeks early at 33 weeks and weighed four pounds, five oz. The baby was wrapped in a blanket and was so tiny that he fit in one of Jarvis’s hands.
“He was so tiny, swaddled in a white blanket, with pink and blue stripes,” Sadie added. “He had an NG tube coming out of his nose because he couldn’t eat on his own since he was premature. But my oh my, was he cute!!!”
The pair had the cutest family photos shot after Ezra Lee’s adoption was confirmed in October 2020 while sporting t-shirts that said “families don’t have to match.”
In 2021, Sadie and Jarvis became parents to twin girls Journee and Destinee through embryo donation. Staying true to their family motto, “Families don’t have to match,” the black couple became parents to three white children — a boy and two girls.
