We are proud parents of our little girl, Evelyn.

We started our adoption process with Adoption STAR. We attended classes, special events and pursued private-track adoption. I’ll start our story about mid-way through our process. It had been 12 months since our home study had been completed. We had just a couple profiling opportunities only to end in disappointment. It was July 4th week and Tony and I had taken this week off. Tony was painting the baby’s room and I was re-doing our profile.

The weather was great, so I decided to take my laptop outside to work on our profile. I looked up to see a blue heron fly over. Then, I was surprised to hear him vocalize. He flew low and right above me. It was our Stork! I ran inside to tell Tony that our baby was just delivered. I did not know exactly what that meant but I felt she was already promised to us.

About 8 months had passed. I thought about our adoption process several times a day for close to 2 years. But during the past 8 months, many of those thoughts were about my ‘stork’ sighting. I was convinced that March would be our month! Would we be matched? Maybe we would bring our baby home in March! On March 9, Adoption STAR told me about a Birth Mom. For the next couple of days, I thought about her and all the reasons this was a perfect match. Even though we had not been chosen, I told Tony that we needed to finally pick out a name for our little girl. I was out of town, so Tony had sent me an e-mail with baby names and their meanings. He sent me the meaning of Evelyn – it was my grandmother’s name but also meant “waited for child”. At that moment, I felt like she was ours. The next morning, we received a call from Adoption STAR. Birth Mom had chosen us!

We had 2 weeks before Evelyn was due, but Birth Mom said she could ‘go any day’. She was right. She went into labor 2 days later. Evelyn was born on the 14th of March. The next day, we went to the hospital to meet our Birth Mom and our daughter, Evelyn.

When Tony and I walked into the room, I think our hearts stopped. There was our Birth Mom waiting for us, holding Evelyn in her arms. We could never have imagined a more beautiful baby. That day, I told our Birth Mom about my ‘stork’ story….and Evelyn arrived 9 months later.

After years of waiting, my husband and I received that “phone call” on May 12th— our daughter (Jenna) had been born the previous day! I can’t even explain how we felt at that time – I honestly do not remember what was said or what I did. We decided to surprise Dave’s family but we had to tell my family since my sister was going in the hospital to give birth to my niece and I was to babysit her son. Well, you can imagine what a surprise it was….Dave’s father was the first one we told – he had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer and was going through a bad spot. Needless to say, Jenna was a shining star in his book! 18 months later, Dave’s dad lost his battle with cancer and the family was going through many emotions. It was during this time that our miracle occurred. We received a second call from STAR asking if we would consider adopting our daughter’s sibling. This was an answer to our prayers – it was something we discussed wanting but not sure we could handle another emotional roller coaster. We truly felt this was a gift that we were meant to receive. There are no words or actions that can express what Adoption STAR means to our family – it is because of them that we have been blessed with our two miracles.

Our dreams came true after a long wait and many profiling opportunities. Feeling discouraged and frustrated with the wait I called Michele Fried to discuss our profile. We had already changed it two or three times, created a DVD, and an online profile. During our conversation Michele told me they were working on an adoption plan for a baby boy born the day before. I thought about him all day wondering if he could be our baby. When the phone rang late than afternoon I held my breath. It was Sue Kolock calling to share the news that we had a son! Less than 24 hours later we sat in the STAR nursery as Owen was placed in our arms. It was so hard to believe he was actually ours.

Owen continues to bring us so much joy everyday. We will always be grateful to his birth family for making an adoption plan and to Adoption STAR for bringing us together.

Thanks for allowing us to share our Adoption Story with you. Marc and I have been married for over 13 years. When we were first married, we knew it could be a struggle for us to conceive. We tried fertility medication for years and although I was able to become pregnant, I was not able to hold any of the pregnancies. After several heartbreaking miscarriages, we decided adoption was the perfect option for us.

We contacted a local agency in Rochester and after completing the process, a baby girl was placed with us. We were so excited about the thought of raising our baby girl and beginning our family. Sadly, after two weeks of having the baby girl in our home, the birth mom changed her mind. This heartbreak was devastating to our families, but we were committed to adoption and felt we needed to contact another agency. It was at this time we were referred to Adoption STAR and met Michele Fried and her wonderful staff. We instantly knew this was a caring agency that would one day help us begin our family.

During the adoption process, we met many couples eager to begin a family just like us. We continue close relationships with many of these families we met along the way.

After roughly one year, we received a call about the possibility of adopting a 6 week old baby boy. After flying to NYC, we returned home with our son Sean, who would be a part of our family forever. Sean is a beautiful boy and we are so blessed to have him in our lives.

We knew that adopting Sean was a blessing, but hoped and prayed if it was meant to be, we would someday be able to adopt again.

Three years later, and after beginning the process again, we received a call about a second beautiful boy, who was 3 months old. With the help of Adoption STAR, we were blessed once again with our second son, Daniel. Daniel is a joy to all of us and he and Sean are inseparable. Then, after years of trying to conceive, and adopting two beautiful boys, we found out I was pregnant without any medical help, and now have a little girl, Caitlin…GOD sure does work in mysterious ways.

We will be forever grateful to Adoption STAR for our beautiful family.

After trying for several years with fertility meds, and then finally doing in-vitro with no success, we decided we had to figure out if we wanted to remain childless, or to adopt. We decided to adopt.

After searching the Internet for agencies to help us, I really liked the Adoption STAR website, because it was the most informative… and we started our adoption journey.

We learned a lot in the classes, especially how open adoption is not a bad thing but a positive thing, and this eased our minds a lot.

11 months later, on March 15, we got the call that there was a baby boy born already, the birth mom was committed to an adoption plan… were we interested? We said yes! I got the call 5 hours later that we were chosen. The birth mom signed the papers, and went home. I was ecstatic, and cried, and was happy, and scared, and happy, and very scared, and really really happy, but scared… all at the same time. Such a tumult of emotions, I cry now thinking about that day. I called my husband to tell him we were chosen and I think he was choked up a bit too. It was an awesome moment and a story I hope I can tell Jacob someday.

We picked up Jacob at the agency on March 17, with my mother-in-law and she filmed the whole thing, God bless her! He had on a little green knit hat as all the babies had on that day at the hospital, how cute is that? I saved it, of course, along with his outfit! It was a moment I will never forget. The first time I held him was not in a hospital room as most moms hold their babies, but at the agency in a special room set up for this occasion. I cried, my husband cried, the social workers cried, my mother-in-law cried, I am crying as I write this and remember that special moment of holding him for the first time. And changing him for the first time. Then it was time to go home, and calling everyone with the news that we were bringing our baby home! I thought of his birth mom quite often that first month, how she must be feeling, does she know what she just did for us and our family? Parents, and Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles were finally formed because of her. How do you possibly thank someone for that? How do you thank her because our hearts were bursting with love and her heart was breaking? I managed to find the words and finally sent her a note. And then we met for the first time when Jacob was 3 months old. We were so nervous, but she was more nervous than us! After our one year commitment to staying in touch with her was over, she still wanted to see him, and we agreed and have developed a beautiful ongoing relationship. We see her about 3 times a year. I also met her other children and her sister and her mother. I think she feels good about making an adoption plan, and sees that Jacob is happy, and that we are nice people who love him to pieces. She met my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law, who thanked her so much for making them a grandma and an aunt!

We always have a current picture of the birth mother, myself, my husband and Jacob and one of just her and our son hanging in our house and we refer to her as his birth mom. He doesn’t quite know what that means, but we did explain to him during our most recent meeting with her that he grew in her tummy, and he asked, “I grew in her tummy?” and we said “Yes, you did.” I am sure there will be more questions, and we are ready for them, we think! People who don’t know we adopted think he looks just like me or just like my husband! It is really amazing that he has my hair color and my husband’s eye color, since his birth mom is a red head with green eyes! The journey we took to Jacob was amazing!

The wait had seemed much longer than the six weeks since our home study had been finished when we got the call asking if we’d like to be profiled for a new-born baby from Virginia. We held our breath for the next hour until we knew he was ours and we’ve been holding our hearts ever since. We have never been so busy or as happy as we are now. Our home is full of love and laughter and we are constantly amazed and honored to parent our son, Leo, who keeps us on the run, who never stops talking, who loves trucks, dirt and trains and who delights his grandparents daily. He also has an incredible birth family that we treasure and feel honored to maintain contact with and keep a part of our lives.