Our Blog

Creating an adoption plan for your baby after an unplanned pregnancy is no easy task. As you travel along your journey, you’ll experience all kinds of mixed emotions—some positive, many others negative. Some mornings you’ll wake up in a state of total despair, wondering how you ever got yourself into this mess. While other days you’ll be seized with feelings of joy, hope and optimism, knowing that you’ll be giving your child the future you want her to have, even if it isn’t with

This guest post is by Lindsay Cates, a birthmother. The strength it took me to walk out of the hospital without my baby 1½ years ago is inexplicable. The only thing that has filled the void has been my son’s wonderful parents. They have been amazing and given Haden the most incredible life—more than I could have ever asked for. I think people, especially women, can’t imagine “giving” their baby “away.” But I didn’t give away my baby. Because people are

This guest post is by Tysie Stoyan, an adoptive mother. I’ll be honest: I was scared to death of having an open adoption at first. I had heard so many horror stories that all I could think of was all the things that could go wrong after I adopted my son, Zane. But from Day One, I had a special connection with his birthmother, and the more I got to know her the more comfortable I became. It was like the

This guest post is by Paige Knipfer, an adoptive mother. Adopting a baby can be overwhelming. It’s hard to predict what will happen as you go your journey or where you’ll end up. When my husband and I first began our journey, I couldn’t believe how little people knew about adoption and how willing they were to share their horror stories with me. One of the things I learned is that you need to understand where people are coming from. Most

Adopting a newborn baby is expensive. Depending on which path you choose, whether you sign up with an agency or go the independent route with an attorney and try to find an open adoption match on your own, bringing a baby home can cost tens of thousands of dollars. To help defray the costs, many waiting parents today are going online and creating their own fundraising pages through Facebook and GoFundMe. Then there’s 9-year-old Kiefer Martin. The Fargo, North Dakota boy is raising money for his

This guest post is by Makena, a birthmother.  As I look back on my adoption placement experience, there was a lot that fell into place. In the beginning, being 16, pregnant and a sophomore in high school, I thought my life was going to end up in the worst of circumstances. I struggled with faith and hope. But after I outlined the pros and cons of placing versus parenting and picked my son’s adoptive parents,  one thing after another fell into place. First things first: I

This guest post is by Andrea, a birthmother. Last November I found out I was 4 months pregnant. I was shocked. No way it could have been true because I took Plan B right after unprotected sex. Looking down at the positive pregnancy test, it felt as if God had placed a hand on my shoulder and told me that my child was going to be placed for adoption. I think the absolute biggest misconception about birthmothers is that we’re unfit

“I am still in awe of the courage and strength of birthparents who make the choice to place their baby for adoption.” When it comes to sharing her feelings about birthmothers and the tough decisions they make, Katie Chavira doesn’t hold anything back. Katie was the Birthparent Intake Counselor and Supervisor for the Birthparent Intake department at the now-closed Independent Adoption Center. Over the last 12 years she met with expectant mothers considering adoption to explain their rights and options, including open adoption. According

This guest post is by Paige Knipfer, an adoptive mother.   After we brought our baby daughter home, I’ll be honest: We didn’t know what we were doing. Like a lot of new adoptive parents, we assumed we couldn’t have a baby shower. And we were reluctant to ask for one because we felt we didn’t deserve it. But that didn’t seem right to me. So eventually we had one. What I learned from that experience is that you need to ignore what the

If a picture is worth a thousand words, this video is priceless. Lacy and Banks Farris created it after they adopted a baby through an online match. Following years of infertility, miscarriage and a failed placement, they wanted to celebrate their open adoption news in a special way. So with Lacy holding their newborn and Banks armed with a camera, they filmed the heartbreaking moment when they made a surprise visit to their family and friends to introduce their little girl for the