Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Parra.
Jennifer, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
We are Jenny and Cesar and we grew our family through adoption. Our road to parenthood wasn’t easy. It started with the loss of our twin boys on November 24, 1999. They were stillbirth at 37 weeks and I still had to give birth. This was the hardest thing we ever had to endure as a couple. It was devastating and in the meantime, we tried to get pregnant but couldn’t.
Three years past and we still couldn’t get pregnant. It wasn’t until Cesar finally packed up our twins’ things that I got pregnant. We were so excited and scared at the same time. We were very cautious during this pregnancy. I ended up having placenta previa and was put on bed rest. I had an emergency c-section and delivered our rainbow baby girl, Gabriella, on the exact same day as our twins just four years later. November 24, 2003. She is named after her twin brothers. I also had to have a partial hysterectomy due to the placenta attaching to my uterus which was causing me to hemorrhage.
Years past and we decided to look into adoption. We chose private domestic adoption. We were matched with a baby boy who was just born in St. Paul, Minnesota. When we met him, he didn’t have a name yet. We decided that we would name him together with his birth mom. She chose his name “Jonathan” and we chose his middle name “Nicolas.” Of all the places that he could have been born, he was born in St. Paul which is also known as a Twin City. It made us think about our twins. We finalized Jonathan’s adoption after six months.
Two years past and we decided to adopt through foster care. We got a call to foster a little boy, Koda, who was just a year younger than Jonathan. After three weeks, we found out that he had a baby sister and they wanted to place them together. We agreed and had to get everything set up and ready for a baby within days. When they brought her to us, Koda was so excited. It helped him to have her with us. It took 2.5 years to finalize their adoption. Their adoption made me think of a framed quote our twin boys had that read “Two by two, they came.”
We have always felt that all of our kids are connected to each other. They each found their way to us, and we found our way to them. Our twins’ presence has always been felt with each child. It’s as if they are truly watching over us and we hope that they are proud of what they see!
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The first challenge was the loss and grief over our firstborn twin boys. They were stillborn at 37 weeks so I had to still deliver them.
The second challenge was not being able to get pregnant after the loss of our twin boys. We kept taking a pregnancy test and it would be negative. It took three years until I got pregnant.
The third challenge was finally able to get pregnant and then finding out I had placenta previa so I was put on bed rest. Then, I had to deliver via emergency c-section and then get a partial hysterectomy due to the placenta attaching to the uterus. This caused me to hemorrhage.
The fourth challenge was our private domestic adoption and having to wait to get matched.
The fifth challenge was adopting through the foster care system.
The sixth challenge is that our family is multicultural and multiracial. I’m Filipino. My husband is Mexican. Jonathan is African American. Koda and Kaia are African American and Latino. We try to make sure that we embraces all our cultures and races in our family.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
We are a multiracial Youtube family sharing the beauty of adoption through our family and advocating for adoption since there are about 120,000 children waiting to be adopted in the United States. We believe that every child deserves a family.
We also suffered a loss at the start of our parenting journey and we love to share our journey from loss to love. That there is joy and happiness after a devastating loss.
We also focus on lifestyle, parenting of our four kids, marriage (almost 20 years), and family travel.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: www.ourfamilyvine.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/ourfamilyvine
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/ourfamilyvine
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/ourfamilyvine
