Adoption Stories!

Crystal - posted on 09/01/2010

My name is Crystal and our adoption will be final next week! My husband and I was only dating when we got Har'Lee. I had been married twice before and had 7 miscarriages. When I was 21 I had to have a complete hysterectomy. My husband was married for 15 yrs and she couldn't have children. One day we were at my mom's when my cousin asked if anyone wanted a child. We assumed he was joking and said we would like to adopt one someday as our relationship was new. When we got home a few days later there he was dropping of his youngest son who wasn't quite 9 yet, the day before Mother's Day. He went to the lawyers with us and signed over gaurdianship to us and gave us his birth certificate and ss card. We got married a couple of months later and Har'Lee was the best man. Now that we are settled and things are good in our life we are almost done with the adoption. It has taken awhile because we moved out of state and had to wait to be residents of the new state so long and then the laws from state to state adoptions and all but Har'Lee just turned 13 in August and is so excited to finally have his name and things changed because now he feels he belongs somewhere! He was physically, mentally, and sexually abused and moved from place to place with no real connections to anyone. We are blessed and so happy to have a son and give him the life he deserves. It was a struggle at 1st because he thought we would ship him off somewhere and not really be there for him. He now knows we are not going anywhere and would never hurt him. He is an honor roll student and on the football team. He joined chorus and is a very happy and healthy teenage boy! We thank God everyday for allowing us to be his parents. He says his biological parents were just donors so we could be his real parents and he makes sure we know how much he loves and appreciates us as much as we do him! He has had so many 1sts since he's been with us that it seems he was always with us! We couldn't be any prouder if he came from our own seed, to us he is, always was, and always will be our son!

Ruthann - posted on 09/15/2009

My husband and I were married for three years before we were able to get pregnant. We had to use first line fertility meds, and were delighted to concieve twins. At 35 1/2 weeks we went in for a check up, and were blown away to find out that our son had died. We carried both babies for another week and were blessed with a healthy daughter, now 5 years old. 16 months later we found out we had concieved naturally to our surprise. Sadly, I had a complete placental abruption at 34 1/2 weeks, and then a uterine rupture. Our second son died during the emergency delivery. We were very blessed, indeed, though to receive a phone call 10 days after that loss from a cousin who knew of a young woman who wanted to know if we would adopt her baby. We took time to pray about it and called her to tell her that we felt that God was telling us to go ahead with it and see what happens. She told us that because we took the time to pray about it, she knew we were the right family, and she never wavered a bit. She is such an awesome person and has been through so much in her life. She is honorable and courageous, and I am glad that our second daughter has her for a "Birthday mom" as our older daughter dubbed her when she came for our second daughters first birthday. She is 3, and is happy and healthy and looks just like my husband - or so everyone always tells us!



We are now in an awkward position as we have a second cousin who is barely 18 and pregnant, due next month, and still not able to make a decision about what she wants to do. She really wants the birthfather to want to parent the baby with her, but he clearly doesn' t want that. She vacillates back and forth daily and hourly. Its heartbreak for someone or everyone involved by all appearances. We are on the list of possibilities, but she is so not settled about anything. All I can say is that its a good thing we love her so much, because we want a good outcome for her (our cousin, who is more like a niece), and we will be okay, as long as she makes a choice in the best interest of her daughter when the time comes. I just worry about her telling another family (through the adoption agency) that she chooses them and then backing out at the last minute, or regretting her choice for the rest of her life. Lord, please be with her and comfort her and bring her to a place where she can have peace with a decision, and bless that precious baby and her future!

Charleen - posted on 08/21/2009

My husband and I had been married almost 8 years when I was carrying the puppy around saying "woundn't you like a human baby to play with" when my husband said okay if you want a baby you can have one.



Because of cancer surgery I had on my cervix I had to be inseminated and my husband having had a vasectomy we had to use a donor. So after going to the fertility doctor and all the fun testing we picked the donor based on like characteristics of my husband and had the procedure done. I was very lucky to have concieved on the first try. My husband doesn't believe we should ever tell her. I think it will eventually come up. I also believe that because our next daughter is adopted then Gwendolyn probably will think she is special too if she knows.



Gwendolyn looks exactly like me. Jordan our adopted daughter looks like me too. Hehehehehe. But my husband is a stay at home dad so they both love him more. What luck all I wanted was a little girl, I got two and they are both daddy's girls. If I didn't breastfed I am not sure they would talk to me at all. Hehehehe.

Amanda - posted on 07/28/2009

Welcome Rebecca!
Picking an agency is an important step!
Be sure to have your questions ready! We wanted to know where their birthmoms come from(we found an agency in Texas that only placed from the Woman's Prison) What their total cost is, is there a birthmom expense(every state is different) is the medical included in their price, other fees...the list can go on and on! Remember that you do not have to choose an agency in your state either! We have used 3 different agencies and they have been in different states! Also remember sad but true, every agency has different "prices" we worked with 1 agency that charged us $22,500 for a baby, and a different agency $14,000 for a baby in the same state and same race! It is unfortunately just another "market" I've worked with some great agencies and I am sure some of the other moms on here have too! If you have any questions just ask!

Rebecca - posted on 07/27/2009

Hi my name is Rebecca. My husband and I are just beginning this adoption journey after realizing our dream to have a biological child together would not happen. We both have children from previous marriages. My son is 10 and my step-daughter is 16. There sister Emma, was born on 4-1 and passed away on 4-27. We all want to have another child in the house. We are at the picking an agency stage. We also were going through an adoption attorney. I also thought about trying to get word out in theses communities. If anyone knows someone that is thinking of putting there child up for adoption please think of us. We would love to share more about us in private. Thank you.



Rebecca and Joe

Amanda - posted on 05/06/2009

What a great story Candace! We too are foster parents, and is the most amazing experience. Congrats on your new family member!

Candace - posted on 04/27/2009

Hi everyone! I just joined yesterday and would love to share our story. My husband and I have been married for 7 years and have one biological son of our own. We have been foster parents for 3 years now. Ever since I was a teenager I knew I wanted to be a foster and or adoptive parent. It just always felt like something I was "called' to do in my life. Thankfully my husband wasn't against it and said ok we will try it and see what happens. In the 3 years we've been foster parents, we have been mom and dad to 18 kids. When we got into this, we said we are happy with our son and if we adopt fine, if we don't thats fine too. Well last year in March our soon to be adopted 8 daughter came to us. She, like so many of our kids had a very rough start to life. When she came to us, she was so ready for a family. And when she walked in our door from day 1, she just "fit" with us. Like there was an empty place in our family for her and she was moving in that spot. We knew in a very short amount of time that we wanted to make her a part of our forever family. It was a very strange thing for that to happen because none of the other kids we had in the past were like her and just fit with us. She is the only one we can say we would have adopted if they hadn't gone back home to their biological families. We got her in March and she was not legally free for adoption until late August of 2008. We have signed the official intent to adopt and official adoption placement papers and have our lawyer retained for the adoption. We are currently waiting for him to secure a date on the court calendar to make it final. We are all very excited and can't wait for it to be final.

Amanda - posted on 04/18/2009

That is AMAZING Danielle! What a great holiday gift! We have an open adoption by our choice, our little girls are all biologically 1st cousins! So we met everyone! The birthmoms even called me on Mothers Day last year to wish me a happy day! I cherish the relationship we have with our birthmothers, they are amazing women!

Danielle - posted on 04/06/2009

HI, I'm Dani.  I am the mother to a beautiful baby boy named Joshua, through the miricle of adoption.

My husband and I were led to adoption after we had 3 consecutive miscarriages.  Numerous tests were done, but the doctors could find no reason as to why I could not keep a baby past 10 weeks.  They gave us a 60% chance of carrying a baby to term, but those odds did not seem that great to us.  So we just knew that our baby was out there somewhere, and decided to try another way to become parents.

We met with out agency for an introductory meeting in January of '08.  In February of that year we started our classes.  In March we started our paper work for our home study.  We had everything complete by mid April, then we turned in our profile pages and subitted our infor for the agency webpage where birth mothers can look at shortend profiles on-line.  We got "THE CALL" on November 21, 2008.  We were at the airport, ready to go to Florida to visit the hubby's family and go on a cruise for Thanksgiving week.  Our social worker said "I hope you have travelers insurance"  because your son was born yesterday and you need to be at the hospital tomorrow to sign papers, meet the birth parents and bring him home.  There I was in the middle of the Philadelphia airport, shaking and crying uncontrolably, with people giving me looks.  From the airport, we went to Target at 10 PM to pick up the essentials, because we had NOTHING, no crib, diapers, car seat, blankets, clothing etc.  We filled the cart with in minuets of walking in the doors.  Then it was back home, to Lancaster, for a few hours, then back on the road to travel to just outside of Philly to pick up Joshua. 

Joshua is now 4 1/2 months old and doing very well.  We hope to meet up with his birth parents over the summer.