Personal Stories
It's been nearly 4 ½ years since I first laid eyes on my daughter, and yet, to this day, not a day goes by when I'm not overwhelmed with gratitude that the world aligned itself to bring her into my life and family.
We found ourselves at Adoptions With Love through a referral from the Agency we had been working with for what seemed like an eternity of ups and downs all resulting in more waiting. We have worked with Nancy and Amy from the initial call and continue to do so today. They have been tremendous resources and solid "rocks" in a process that felt uncertain at best and never-ending at worst.
About a month after our introduction to AWL, Nancy called to let us know that the birthmother was scheduled to be induced the following day, and that she was really hoping that we would be there in person to greet and love our daughter right from birth. While this was a change from our original plan we found it to be such an amazing indication of love and commitment on the part of the birthmother, and agreed that it would be the best welcome for our daughter as well.
I flew out early the next day to first meet Kelly, the birthmother, and only hours later to be the first to hold Ella when she was born. My husband and son joined us the following day, and we all had the opportunity to get to know Kelly and her family a little bit in the days that followed. Kelly's love and concern for the well-being of her baby was so evident, and the fact that she recognized that we shared this love with her made our short time together a beautiful and memorable experience.
We were able to leave the hospital with Ella when she was three days old, but due to state regulations were required to remain in her birth state for another five days. We made a temporary home in a hotel nearby, with a complete homecoming celebration to follow upon our return home approximately a week after Ella was born.
In the years that have followed we have gladly provided letters and pictures detailing Ella's development and milestones for AWL to share with Kelly, and it warms our hearts to know that she continues to eagerly anticipate receipt of these updates.
My husband is an adoptee himself, and grew up knowing that he wanted to one day "pay forward" this act of love in and for his life by adopting a child of his own. We are so grateful to Kelly and Adoptions With Love for helping to bring Ella into our family.
She's here!
Our daughter's birthmother called us herself 20 minutes after our daughter was born to let us know. The joy that we felt was immeasurable and continues to grow by leaps and bounds every day. Dawn picked us about a month before Katie was born. We were so excited, nervous and terrified all at once. We couldn't believe that our dream of having a child in our home was actually coming true but then we worried that the birthmother wouldn't like us or worse, she would change her mind.
Dawn wanted to meet us before the baby was born so we flew to meet her. We wanted to meet her too so we could let her know about us and how much we would love her baby. We were anxious because we wanted her to like us. The meeting went wonderfully. We met her and her family and really hit it off. After chatting on the phone for the next few weeks, Katie was born. We were there to bring her home, well to a hotel, within 36 hours.
Over the course of the next week we spent a lot of time with Dawn and her family. We feel very lucky to have had this time with them because now we can let our daughter know all about her birth family and what they are like. We have pictures of all of us together having fun and that will be so important for Katie to see. We have such admiration and respect for Dawn. She made a very difficult and courageous decision. Katie will grow up knowing how much her birthmother loves her and that she wants the best for her.
Adoptions With Love supported us through the whole process, applying, placement and post placement. From the beginning all of the staff was so warm and friendly. They were honest about the stress of adoption but had the expertise to help us through it. Nancy and Amy answered all our questions happily, with honesty and they validated our feelings. They listened to our personal history and understood that we had been down a painful road before we came to adoption. The social workers used our story to help them make choices about the birthparents to show us to. When our daughter was born, AWL led us by the hand and told us step by step all that we needed to arrange and they helped us to get it done. Even though they had gone over the process with us before, we were so excited that we needed their guidance to make sure we attended to every detail. When we were away, their frequent phone calls were reassuring. Now that we are home, it is so wonderful to see how happy they are for us.
We are so thankful to Adoptions With Love for their expertise and guidance; We are so thankful to Dawn because she has given us the greatest gift anyone ever could. If we hadn't adopted, we would have missed out on the most wonderful little girl in the world.
Dear Amy and Nancy & Everyone at Adoptions With Love
Judy and I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you and the entire staff at Adoptions With Love, for the very special gift you were so instrumental in providing to our family. We thank you not only for what you have done for our family, but on behalf of the countless other families who’s lives have benefited from the dedication and hard work of everyone at Adoptions With Love. We are all so fortunate that there are people like you out there doing what you do. We are truly indebted to you and we will never forget you and what you have done for our family. Our wish is that you are blessed, as we have been for knowing you. Thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts. Love D & J
