This is part of our monthly check-in with our hopeful adoptive parents to learn more about their adoption journeys and get their thoughts about topics of interest to the adopting community.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Considering how challenging the last year has been, we could all use the luck of the Irish today.
This week we asked prospective parents on our site what’s the luckiest thing that has happened to them during their adoption journey.
Here’s what they had to say.
We have been amazed at the amount of love and support we’ve gotten from friends, family, and even strangers as we’ve shared our adoption journey – we feel so fortunate to have witnessed and received such an outpouring of emotion and connection.
Of course our immediate families and close friends wanted to help, but to connect with old friends, friends-of-friends, and other families – both adoptive and biological – has been immensely meaningful.
The luckiest thing for us is discovering that there’s more love in the world and there are more lives touched by adoption than we had previously realized.
The luckiest thing that has happened to us during our adoption journey is; we were very fortunate to find a “hoping to adopt” group on social media. We met some very nice couples from around the country in which we formed a strong bond over the adoption process.
As such, we’ve created a helpful support system for each other including how to search for adoption networking sites, where we ultimately found America Adopts. We are grateful for meeting these people and would have never done so had we not been on this adoption journey.
The luckiest thing that has happened to us during our adoption journey so far is being connected with amazing, supportive people in our Adoption Support group who have already gone through the process. It is amazing to hear their advice and feel their love and support even though we have not even met yet.
Their words of encouragement give us strength and hope and let us know our little angel is out there waiting for us. We cannot wait for this dream to become a reality and expand the love of our family even more!
We have been lucky and fortunate to have an awesome professional that we work with Adoption Bridges of Kentuckiana. They have support groups for birth mothers and adoptive parents. We meet once a month to go over things.
We have also had lots of help from our family and friends. They have helped us buy all of our things for our nursery and we have it ready to go! It is a safari theme and we cant wait to bring our baby home to enjoy it. We are so excited to start our adventure.
Through a mutual friend, we connected with a family who successfully self-matched for an open adoption through social media! Talking with our new friends gives us hope, encouragement, and advice as we navigate this process.
The luckiest thing that has happened for us during our adoption journey is the show of support from our friends and family.
They have been lifting us up, helping us share, and being positive about our adoption. We have also met so many other people who have gone on this journey or are going through this at the moment and they have been some of our biggest allies.
We truly have a village of love surrounding us and showing us so much love. It’s incredible.
Our entire adoption journey has felt lucky – like this is our destiny and we’re in the right place at the right time.
We’ve been actively telling our story for a few months now. It has been like a love magnet. We’ve received an outpouring of encouragement and support from friends, family, and complete strangers. We’re so fortunate to have so many so eager to celebrate our journey.
Our luckiest moment happened just this past weekend – the adoption agency we signed with loved our adoption profile so much that they’ve offered to let us skip their wait list. They’re going to begin featuring and matching us months earlier than we expected!
Nick and Jeff
Nearly eight years ago, we began the search to add to our family. Luckily, after just a couple months of being active, we were matched with a birthmother.
To our surprise, we received a call a month ahead of her projected birth date, informing us we had less than 24 hours to travel from northern Virginia to central Florida. We traveled through the night and were able to be there for our daughter’s birth.
Fast forward to the present–we again look to add to our family, no matter the scenario or circumstances. Our lives have been enriched by the addition of our daughter, and we hope to make more happy memories by adding another child to our family!
The luckiest thing that has happened during our adoption journey is meeting our awesome neighbors who are in the process of adopting two adorable little kids. They gave us some great advice and perspective, and put us in touch with their adoption attorney.
Their experience and support helped get the ball rolling for our own journey!
The luckiest aspect is that it’s connected us with so many different people. We’ve been able to speak with a few expectant moms, and even though those matches fell through, it’s amazing to get to connect with someone whose path might not have crossed ours otherwise.
We’ve been lucky to be let into their life, and to hear their story, even if it is just for a brief moment.
Emily P and Emily M
This is our second adoption journey and it is so different from our first. We worked with an agency and they took care of everything. This adoption we are self-matching and because of that, we have learned so much about each other as a couple and the adoption process but most importantly, we have met some really amazing other hopeful adoptive parents!!
The relationships are genuine, the bond is real; we share a unique experience separate from the closest family and friends in my life and having them is priceless.
Khandy and Kenneth
The best thing to happen so far in our adoption journey is to have found how loved and supported we are! Our families are so excited to see our family grow and are helping to spread the word.
We have also found a wonderful community of friends and resources, including other families hoping to adopt and some who already have. They are helping to keep our hope alive and we are so appreciative.
Amy and Jason
The luckiest thing that has happened to us during our adoption journey is learning that we are surrounded by so much love and support. Hoping to adopt – especially after struggling with infertility – causes so many complex emotions.
Joyful celebrations can be hard to come by, and heartache is a burden that is often shouldered privately; sometimes it’s hard to know what to tell others and what to hold close. As we’ve opened our hearts and shared our story we’ve been overwhelmed by the encouragement we’ve received from loved ones both near and far.
Meredith and Adam
We ended the year with a disrupted adoption and started the new year with a strong desire to keep going. We realize now more than ever how much we want to continue on our adoption journey, that we’re in this together, and our baby is out there.
Our family, friends, lawyer, and the adoptive families we’ve met along the way are all rooting for us to never give up hope. How lucky are we to have such amazing support.
Andy and Sarah
The luckiest thing that has happened to us on our journey to adopt is the incredible hopeful adoptive families we have connected with and gotten to know. It’s always inspiring to hear from others going through similar struggles and cheering each other on through the difficult times and relishing in each other’s successes.
We are grateful for the support we have been given from these wonderful families, they help us feel supported, loved and seen.
Jenny and Skyler
In 2014, we connected with our son’s biological mother just two weeks after completing our home study and being approved for adoption. Everything worked out so smoothly that we knew it was meant to be.
Trying to adopt a second time has not been as seamless, but our prior experience gives us hope that there is a match out there for us somewhere. And when it does, we will feel just as lucky no matter how long it takes.
Kristen and Alan
We consider ourselves the luckiest already, just to have simply found and fell in love with each other during our lifetimes. But something even more incredible is happening during our adoption journey… we are growing closer and closer as husbands, as partners, as musicians, as friends and as future-fathers, all in ways we didn’t even know were possible! We are so lucky to continue our journey together and know the future is going to be incredible!
We have been lucky enough to have been connected, by our neighbor, with a beautiful support group. Through this group, we have met various groups of people – from other hopeful adoptive parents to parents who have already adopted children and even adoptees themselves.
This group has opened our eyes, ears, and hearts to so many of the wonderful and challenging aspects of adoption. We are taking advantage of every resource possible so that we can be continue to learn and grow and become the best parents to our future children and give them the best life possible.
The luckiest thing that’s happened in our adoption journey is discovering how supportive so many of our friends and family are.
When we tell a friend and they shriek with excitement and ask how they can help, we feel so lucky.