"Why didn't somebody tell me that I had fibroids? Even if they weren't that big, why didn't somebody tell me that I had them?" - Jamel Hicks, Mothering via adoption after fibroids + infertility

After having years of annual exams, Jamel Hicks was 34 years old the first time a gynecologist told her she had fibroids - several fibroids, to be exact. Not only was this news to her, she was also shocked to learn from her mother that many of the women in their family suffered with fibroids. Jamel remembers being about 10 years old when she helped care for an aunt who had surgery. Come to find out, her aunt had a hysterectomy. 

The women in her family didn't talk about those things.

Removing the fibroids set Jamel on a fertility journey that put a strain on her body, mind and blossoming relationship with the man who would become her husband. She started a blog, Maybe Mama, to chronicle her rollercoaster journey with infertility as a Black woman. After one round of IVF treatments, she clearly heard from God "no more medical intervention." 

For Jamel, adoption was not the last resort. Not being a parent was the last resort.

Life as a hopeful adoptive parent (HAP) meant first dealing with the grief of infertility. Today, there's no maybe; Jamel is mama to a beautiful baby boy. Her story is a reminder that #BlackFamiliesAdopt and they are "real" families, too.

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RECOMMENDED ADOPTION RESOURCES

• READ: Maybe Mama Blog - Musings on Infertility. Blackness. Womanhood.
• LISTEN: Voices of the Black Adoption Experience and African American adoptees on The Black Adoption Podcast
• SUPPORT: Fertility for Colored Girls & The Broken Brown Egg & The White Dress Project
• REQUIRED READING: Black to the Beginning Reads Bookshop  - A carefully curated list of #BTTBreads #BTTBreads
• FEATURED #BTTBreads: "Adoption is Both" by Elena S. Hall

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