Here’s what happened. Ryan and Lora met in 1996 when they were both working as counselors at a Bible camp. A couple of years later, Ryan, a Pipestone, Minn., native, graduated from [Moorhead] State University with a degree in English writing. That same year, Lora, who’s from Zimmerman, MN, graduated from Concordia College with a degree in elementary education. They married and hoped to start raising a family, but no children came along.
Lora is currently in her seventh year as a kindergarten teacher at Cambridge Elementary. Ryan works as a writer in the advertising department of the Hinckley casino. They chose Mora as their home a few years back because it’s centrally located between their two jobs. Two and a half years ago, when there were still no babies, they began infertility treatments.
“The doctors said there should be no problems,” said Lora, “but the drugs and injections are very strong. You can’t take them for long periods of time. During that last month, my physical health was at risk and I felt terrible. It wasn’t safe anymore and we had to stop. The treatments didn’t work. Sometimes, things are just unexplained. We’ve decided to take a different path and adopt. But the problem now is that the treatments were very expensive and we have used up all our resources on them.”
So it was lack of funds that inspired their unique fundraising scheme. They started with a huge garage sale in Mora a couple of weeks ago. The sale included many items donated by family and friends and was quite successful. Over the coming Christmas season, they hope to make some extra money with profits from wreaths sold at Lora’s parents’ nursery in Zimmerman. Mike and [Jacie] Lemke own Nelson Nursery there. And Ryan has designed a website (www.operationadoption.com) that tracks the couple’s efforts, and offers their services for a variety of tasks. For example, Lora, who grew up around plants and gardens, is currently helping a local resident do yard and garden cleanup work. And Ryan will soon be traveling to Pipestone to help a family member shingle a roof (his parents, Jim and Cheri Jacobson, still live in Pipestone).
“I’ve never done it before, but I’ll give it a try,” he said good-naturedly. “I think I’m going to be the guy on the ground who hands all the bundles up.”
The Jacobsons have now registered with the Lutheran Social Service adoption agency, a domestic agency that facilitates adoptions within Minnesota. They are in the process of a long application process, which includes being fingerprinted, having physicals, providing numerous references. When that’s done, they will be required to participate in two daylong training sessions, one at the end of September, the other at the end of October. Then their names and their “profile” will be placed in a book that includes data on many other would-be adoptive parents.
“This will be an ‘open adoption’,” explained Lora. “The mother picks you. You’re not on a waiting list. You meet the mother, you’re there when the baby is born. You can have a running relationship with the mother afterwards, and the child knows right from the start that he or she is adopted. It seems really strange to have to advertise yourself, but it’s also neat that Ryan works in advertising. We hope his skill will make us ‘look good’ to someone out there. We would like an infant, but we have no other preference than that.”
Ryan’s skill as a writer may provide yet another source of funds. He hopes to self-publish a children’s book about “what Santa does the other 364 days of the year” before next Christmas. He has the text all written and is searching for an illustrator. All proceeds from that book would go toward the adoption.
It’s not Ryan’s first foray into the world of writing and publishing. His first children’s book, “Eleanor Roosevelt: First Lady of the World” is being published by Capstone Press of Mankato and is due to hit shelves next month. He also has two more graphic history novel assignments from Capstone, one about Francis Scott Key and the writing of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” and another one about William Penn. He said he’s written “a lot of fiction” in his life, and has dabbled in screen writing too.
As for Lora, she’s happy to start out another year in her kindergarten classroom. Teaching kids is something she knew she wanted to do at an early age. The Jacobsons obviously share a love for young children. They are licensed foster parents who are able to provide a temporary home for a child in need of one. Hopefully, within a year or so, a child will be joining them on a more permanent basis.
“We’ve received a lot of support so far,” said Ryan, “from friends, families, strangers. We hear a lot of encouraging adoption stories. We’re very appreciative. It’s very personal, having our story out there. We have loving families and friends who have seen us through heartache and follow our journey on our website. It’s great to be able to share our hope that this will come true. People seem to want to be able to do something to help, and this is a way they can do that. We’re grateful for any support, prayers, ideas, emails. We want to earn the funds we need and we’re hoping that, through word-of-mouth resources and connections, we’ll be able to do that.”
The $15,000 does not need to be paid all at once. It’s the overall cost of adoption, paid out in increments for various costs accrued through the process. What will Ryan and Lora do if the adoption agency calls with a child before they’ve reached their year’s goal?
“We’ll work it out somehow,” chimed Lora.
Prediction: it may involve more than the usual nine months, but Ryan and Lora Jacobson are going to have a baby.
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