My husband Bill and I had been waiting to adopt for a few months. Only recently had our local agency sent our profile to Adoption STAR. But I had gotten to the point where I dreaded hearing the phone ring….every time I did I thought – will this be THE call? Most times it wasn’t. But then one day, just as I was getting ready to leave my desk at work and get ready for a training class, the phone rang. I remember debating with myself, “Do I answer it, because it’s going to be nothing or do I just let it go to voice mail?” Well, I answered it and I heard the words I will never forget, “It’s Michele from Adoption STAR – you’ve been selected!”. The only other words that sounded better came from Michele only two weeks later “Congratulations, your son has been born!” Matthew was born October 3, 2002, and made all those dreaded phone calls a very distant memory.

Our journey did not end there. Nine months later, I was training a class, and my cell phone rang. I immediately recognized the phone number. I had this funny feeling. I turned to my co-worker and said “Wow, I bet this is Adoption STAR telling me our birth mother is expecting again.” To my surprise and excitement, I was right!!! Three months later, Matthew was the proud big brother to Madison Lee, born November 21, 2003. As I tell Matthew and Madison when I tell them their adoption story – that is the day our forever family became complete.

Happy Birthday Adoption STAR. Thank you for all you have done for our forever family, for our children’s birth mother, and what you continue to do for other families.