Adoption

It’s all in the name!

Birth parents have every right to name the child during the pregnancy and to keep that name in their hearts.  And that name will be reflected on the birth mother’s copy of the birth certificate.  In fact, most birth mothers do choose a name and refer to the baby by that name.

Although adoptive parents have a legal right to choose the name that will be on the final birth certificate, the trend now is for the birth parents and the adoptive parents to talk to each other about the baby’s name. Often the final name is something that everyone has discussed.

We see many adoptive parents choose one of the birth mother’s names for the baby’s final name, and we also see a lot of babies that are given a name that honors the birth mother or birth father – such as using a birth parents’ name as part of the final name.

I remember receiving my oldest son’s original birth certificate when he was three months old and realizing that his birthmother had chosen the name Joseph Anthony. How I wish I had known what she had chosen for him, because it would have been beautiful to give him that name! Sometimes when he looks at me, and I see her long eyelashes in his eyes and his full eyebrows, I think, “Joe Anthony, you are beautiful, just like she is!”

Do you have a story you’d like to tell?  Email us at blog.ach@foryourlife.com.  Visit us at www.AChildsHope.com, or call our Birth Mother Hotline at 1-877-890-HOPE (4976) so one of our adoption counselors can answer your questions confidentially.

Please remember that this is a public site open to anyone; therefore, anything you post can be seen by anyone.

Waiting to Adopt – Kirk & Andrea

Kirk and Andrea met through a mutual friend at a tailgating party before a local college football game and have been married since 2001.  Kirk is the love of Andrea’s life, and Andrea is Kirk’s best friend.  They are very active in their church and in their daughter Bailee’s life.

Bailee enjoys in gymnastics, cheerleading, playing in her backyard, and swimming at the neighborhood pool.  And she’s anxious to share all she’s learned with a new brother or sister!

Thanks to Kirk, Andrea and Bailee for sharing the story of their family with us!

Do you have a story you’d like to tell?  Email us at blog.ach@foryourlife.com.  Visit us at www.AChildsHope.com, or call our Birth Mother Hotline at 1-877-890-HOPE (4976) so one of our adoption counselors can answer your questions confidentially.

Please remember that this is a public site open to anyone; therefore, anything you post can be seen by anyone.

Special Babies Deserve and Get Special Parents with Adoption!

Every woman about to give birth worries about whether the baby will be born safely and healthy! And most babies are born safely and healthy. When you are making a plan to place your baby for adoption, it is normal to worry that the adoptive parents you have chosen may not accept your baby if he or she is born with a defect.

Do not worry! There s always a loving, caring home for your baby. Most adoptive parents bond with the baby before birth so any health problems are accepted. And because so many tests are now done before the baby is born, it is rare for a baby to be born with a serious health condition that doesn’t show up on the tests. But when there is a baby born with a serious health problem that the adoptive parents feel they cannot provide care for, there is always another great family ready to step in and love the child!

Babies have been placed for adoption when they were born with severe brain damage, serious heart defects, and other birth defects that require years or sometimes a lifetime of special care. Regardless of your baby’s health at birth, he or she will be loved and cherished for life if placed for adoption!

Do you have a story you’d like to tell?  Email us at blog.ach@foryourlife.com.  Visit us at www.AChildsHope.com, or call our Birth Mother Hotline at 1-877-890-HOPE (4976) so one of our adoption counselors can answer your questions confidentially.

Please remember that this is a public site open to anyone; therefore, anything you post can be seen by anyone.

Waiting to Adopt – Ike & Pam

Ike and Pam met and actually dated in high school but then went their separate ways for college.  Years later, though, they ended up at the same college – Pam for graduate work, Ike finishing his degree – in the same apartment complex, in the same apartment building, across the hall from each other.  It was fate!

This time around the timing was right. They married and that was 14 years ago, and they’re still happy together!  Ike and Pam love spending time in the mountains and at the beaches in North Carolina.  They’re both athletic and enjoy playing and watching sports.  They love spending time with their friends and family and are proud godparents of their best friends’ daughter. Both their families live within a short drive, so holidays are eventful!  Between them, Ike and Pam have nine nieces and nephews, two of whom are adopted.

They plan to tell their child as much about his or her birth mother and her family as she is open to, and about the love it took for her to make the adoption decision.

Thanks to Ike and Pam for allowing us to tell the story!

Do you have a story you’d like to tell?  Email us at blog.ach@foryourlife.com.  Visit us at www.AChildsHope.com, or call our Birth Mother Hotline at 1-877-890-HOPE (4976) so one of our adoption counselors can answer your questions confidentially.

Please remember that this is a public site open to anyone; therefore, anything you post can be seen by anyone.

Indiana Jones meets Ally McBeal – and Adoption Ensues!

It’s a war time love story!

Sal and Kathy met in the Persian Gulf on board a ship.  Kathy was a Navy nurse, and Sal was a Merchant Marine.  It’s an old story – they fell in love during the war and have been together ever since!

Sal is currently a professor at a private university and studied archeology and history, and Kathy is a lawyer with her own small practice.  They love swimming, spending time with family, and being outside.  But mostly they love parenting their adopted son, Christopher, now four years old.

Christopher is not so patiently waiting for a brother or sister.   “I promise I will even share my toys with my new little brother or sister,” says Christopher.  Sal, Kathy and Christopher are anxiously waiting for the phone call to let them know that they have been chosen by a birthmother and a brother or sister for Christopher is on the way!

Thanks to Sal, Kathy and Christopher for allowing us to tell their story!

Do you have a story you’d like to tell?  Email us at blog.ach@foryourlife.com.  Visit us at www.AChildsHope.com, or call our Birth Mother Hotline at 1-877-890-HOPE (4976) so one of our adoption counselors can answer your questions confidentially.

Please remember that this is a public site open to anyone; therefore, anything you post can be seen by anyone.

Anxiously Waiting…

Janice and Leon met at work at a small software company in England. Janice was in accounting, Leon was a traveling software consultant, and they fell in love over Leon’s expense reports. When they were offered an opportunity to come to America, they jumped at it! Janice enjoys baking and photography, while Leon golfs every chance he gets. They travel – Janice’s family lives all over the world, and Leon’s five brothers and sisters are in England – hike, and relax around the house with their 15-year-old calico, Purdy. Even though they don’t have kids of their own…YET…they enjoy playing with their friends’ children and can’t wait to pass on their favorite traditions. Leon’s favorite: Waiting at the top of the stairs on Christmas morning while mom and dad go down to see what Santa and the reindeer had left.

A Bend In The Road

Jeff and Lisa have been married for about 14 years.  The first few years of their marriage, they just enjoyed being with each other.  They wanted to wait to have kids.   However, after numerous doctor visits and medical procedures, they accepted that they wouldn’t be able to conceive.  Jeff and Lisa started exploring adoption through friends who had been through similar issues.  Lisa says, “Our friends were so blessed with a beautiful baby through adoption.  We pray daily that God will answer our prayers.”

Lisa and Jeff spend lots of time outdoors and with their extended families, and they’re very active with the youth group at church.  In addition to Easter egg hunts, Christmas plays and other events, Jeff and Lisa go to church camp at the beach with about 50 kids every year.  They look forward to the day when their own adopted child can go on the trip too!

Thanks to Jeff and Lisa for allowing us to tell their story!

Do you have a story you’d like to tell?  Email us at blog.ach@foryourlife.com.  Visit us at www.AChildsHope.com, or call our Birth Mother Hotline at 1-877-890-HOPE (4976) so one of our adoption counselors can answer your questions confidentially.

Please remember that this is a public site open to anyone; therefore, anything you post can be seen by anyone.

The First Time…!

“One gets only a day or two in an entire lifetime as incredible as the day we saw your face!”

The first time you see your child’s face is a memory that stays with you forever. As an adoptive mother, I’ve had the joy of seeing my two little boys both just hours after their birth.  I think of those first few moments so often and smile each time.

No matter how many precious memories you gather in the year that follow, those first few moments of seeing your baby and knowing that “he is yours to raise” are, to me, frozen in time as if God reached his hand down and said “Stop, remember this moment!”

My oldest son travelled with us when we first saw his brother in the neonatal unit of a Tennessee hospital. This photograph is the moment when they first saw each other. One boy, age four, meeting the newborn boy destined to be his brother.

Do you have a story you’d like to tell?  Email us at blog.ach@foryourlife.com.  Visit us at www.AChildsHope.com, or call our Birth Mother Hotline at 1-877-890-HOPE (4976) so one of our adoption counselors can answer your questions confidentially.

Please remember that this is a public site open to anyone; therefore, anything you post can be seen by anyone.

Adoption Can Be Simply 1+1!

Sharon was 39 years old and wanted a child, but she just hadn’t met Mr. Right.

“Well, I wasn’t sure I was meant to find Mr. Right, but I knew I was meant to be a mom,
Sharon said. “People kept telling me I should adopt, but I was concerned I couldn’t do it on my own.”

Sharon wanted to be a mom, so she followed her heart and signed with our adoption agency. She adopted Katelyn, an African American girl who was born in 2005.

Sharon has faced challenges as a single woman adopting a child, and because Sharon is Caucasian, adopting an African American infant brought on complications.  But thanks to A Child’s Hope, these challenges have been met with love and humor. The result?  A little girl with a very devoted mother.

“Katelyn is a part of me that will always be there,” said Sharon. “She is my daughter, and I am the only mother she has ever known. And she always comes first. Adopting Katelyn is the absolute best thing I have ever done, and I would absolutely do it again.”

The pieces of Sharon’s puzzle have come together – the love she felt for Katelyn rushed into every facet of her life, and she married Mr. Right last year. Yes, Sharon does receive comments from strangers about Katelyn, but she has learned to handle it with humor.

“My favorite comment is when I’m asked if her father was African American,” Sharon said. “I always respond, ‘Yes apparently he was.'”

Do you have a story you’d like to tell?  Email us at blog.ach@foryourlife.com.  Visit us at www.AChildsHope.com, or call our Birth Mother Hotline at 1-877-890-HOPE (4976) so one of our adoption counselors can answer your questions confidentially.

Please remember that this is a public site open to anyone; therefore, anything you post can be seen by anyone.

Are You Afraid?

There is no way around the fact that there is heartache when you place your child for adoption. You will grieve and over time the pain lessens, but you will not forget the loss. It takes courage and trust to place a baby.

It’s important when placing a baby for adoption that you work with a trained adoption counselor before to learn about the grief you will experience and to prepare yourself.  Birthmothers often make keepsake boxes of the baby’s bracelet, by take pictures and writing a letter to the baby saying goodbye.

What helps the most with the heartache is to know that you love your child so much that you have chosen to give him/her the best life possible – something that at the time you are not able to give. Parenting is the biggest challenge all of us face!

Birthmother Hotline: (877) 890-4673

Envia Un Texto: (919) 218-6270

Text: Pregnant to (919) 971-4396