Like most other couples, we struggled with infertility. After years of treatments and all the emotional ups and downs, we decided that adoption with right for us. In April, we attended an orientation at Adoption STAR and immediately signed up for the next Home Study classes.
That summer, Kim lost her job due to restructuring (after 8 years with a state agency). Knowing that Civil Service would eventually find her a new position; she took advantage of her “free time” and worked hard at completing our Home Study and adoption profiles. Our Home Study was completed in September.

We eagerly waited “to be profiled”, honestly, not being optimistic.

The morning of November 7, Kim received a phone call that changed our lives forever. “There was a baby boy born yesterday in Indianapolis, Indiana. He is supposed to be discharged tomorrow. Are you interested in being profiled?” Kim excitedly answered, “Yes!” and immediately tried getting in touch with Dennis, only to receive his voice mail; we both were at our jobs that day. Kim tried to continue working, but was so excited, it was difficult. Then about three hours later, while still at work, Kim received the ultimate news… we were selected by the birth mom! Now, Kim really needed to get in touch with Dennis as we just became parents! Finally, Dennis answered his phone. We were both crying and in shock. We spent our evening preparing for our trip to Indiana. We were on our way to Babies R Us to purchase “the essentials”, as we were not prepared (knowing if we were ever selected, we would buy things then), all the while making phone calls to notify family and friends. One of our best friends told us to turn around and come right to their house as they had everything we needed. What a blessing! They gave us the infant car seat/carrier, a pack ‘n play, bottles, bibs, newborn clothes, etc. We only needed to buy diapers and wipes. The following morning, November 8, we were on our way to Indianapolis to meet our son. The 9-hour ride went so smoothly. We used that time to continue contacting family and friends. Meeting Connor that night was the best experience of our lives. He was born with a full head of black hair – no one told us that ahead of time. The nurses at the hospital were amazing! When Connor was discharged the following day, the nurses packed a diaper bag for us with several days-worth of formula and other essentials. We remained in Indiana for almost one week, awaiting state clearance. It was priceless family time together – just the three of us!
Connor is now a happy, healthy two-and-a-half year old toddler that has filled our lives with more joy than he ever will imagine.

We are extremely blessed that God chose this plan for us and that we were strong enough to believe Him.

Thank you to Connor’s birth mom for being so strong, selfless and courageous. We have an open adoption and will be able to share this entire journey with Connor.

Thank you, Adoption STAR, for helping us understand adoption and for living it. May you continue to create forever families for many years to come!

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.

Our beautiful identical twin daughters came to us through Adoption STAR’s capable hands. The agency made our adoption experience wonderful, even through some bumps and unexpected turns in the road. We feel blessed and grateful to Adoption STAR and especially to Michele.

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.