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April 30, Brian’s birthday, dawned bright and clear. Brian rose early and came running downstairs to find his new sister. With tears in my eyes, I told him that she wasn’t here. Sensing my distress, he wrapped his arms around my neck and said, “Don’t worry, Mommy. My party isn’t until this afternoon.”

Feeling the need for some support, I telephoned my husband at work, but he was performing a surgery. “He should be out in about 15 minutes,” his nurse said. “I’ll have him call you.”

When the phone rang, I grabbed it and burst out, “Chuck, I need you to talk to Brian. He’s really expecting a baby sister today.”

After a short silence, a woman’s... more

When we were waiting to adopt our first daughter from China, it occured to me to search through the Church magazine archives to see if I could find any articles or stories about adoption. I found several, and they buoyed me up and kept me going when I felt discouraged or frustrated. Over the years, I've compiled a fairly comprehensive listing of them and decided to share some of them here. Some are recent stories, some are rather old. They deal with domestic adoption, international adoption, special needs adoption, sibling group adoption, transracial adoption, newborn adoption - you name it. No matter what kind of adoption you may find yourself involved in, you can be blessed by those... more

I wonder, though, if some of these arguments are actually moot, and maybe the “competition” isn’t as stiff as some might think. I know MANY adoptive families – far more than the average Joe – and I can’t think of a single one who is able to have biological children (meaning perfectly fertile and without medical complications that might make pregnancy risky) and has adopted the proverbial HWN just because they wanted to choose adoption first (or instead.) Families like this may certainly exist, but I’ve yet to meet one. No, most of the families I’ve encountered with biological and adopted children, or only adopted children (but who could have biological children) have been made up of children... more

While researching something entirely different, I ran across this blog post today and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

When we were first debating adding a fifth child (presumably by birth) and subsequently encountered the idea of international adoption, I spent a good chunk of time wondering whether we should adopt if we were able to have biological children. I worried about the commandment to “multiply and replenish the earth,” and whether I was somehow ducking my responsibility in this area by choosing adoption (though this concern seems pretty silly to me now). Later, even after we had our adoption... more

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We met each other a few weeks before I gave birth, and we bonded immediately. At LDS Family Services, my parents and I met the adoptive parents and their six-year-old daughter. We visited for about two hours, talking and getting to know each other. The day after we met each other, they wrote me a letter saying how good they felt about everything. They said it was an answer to their prayers.

After I gave birth to my baby girl, I had a couple days with her to myself. The night before the placement was hard. I was holding the baby, thinking, “How am I going to do this? Will I be able to do this?” I was praying for strength.

The next step was... more

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In my next couple of appointments with Kathy, we talked about adoption and how that process works. Finally, after weeks of meeting with Kathy, I felt that I had a good idea of what was involved with adoption and with single parenting.

Being a single parent would be hard, as would placing my baby for adoption. So I prayed about this decision continually. I put off deciding to place my baby for adoption because it was a difficult decision I didn’t want to make right away.

I came to the decision to place my baby for adoption after months of soul searching, deep thought, and lots of prayer. It took me a long time to feel like I had an answer. Even... more

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When I came across this story, I just knew that I had to share it here. Knowing that so many birthparents undertake the decision to place a baby through counsel with their church leaders and heartfelt prayer to the Lord helps us to know that Heavenly Father's hand is truly directing the course of these sweet babies' lives. It is not up to chance, and birthparents and adoptive parents alike can receive great peace and comfort knowing that He is there helping with these difficult decisions.

The story is called "The Adoption Decision" and can be found in the March 2006 New Era.

Name Withheld

A 19-year-old unwed mother,... more

In today's story, we'll meet the H.B. family who decided to adopt domestically through a private adoption agency. :)

When my husband and I made the decision to adopt, we hadn't even considered where we might adopt from. If you're LDS, you go to LDS Family Services, right? So off we went. We had our intake appointment, were treated very kindly, and began working on the paperwork for our homestudy. All seemed fine, except that we felt no peace as we began to proceed. Despite our determination and a definite confirmation that our... more

Continued from part one

Also at this open house, I asked about adopting from Ukraine, but was put off with comments that Ukraine was not a good place to adopt from because they "put up roadblocks". We went home frustrated (me) and angry (my husband). When we got home, he said that if I wanted to continue with this, I would have to find a way to do it independently. That night I got on the Internet and found Cathy Harris' group Ukrainian Angels. She detailed her adoption struggles in Ukraine and told about how she decided... more

As promised in our survey of the various adoption options open to LDS families, I will be sharing a few stories from families who chose to adopt through each of the avenues we discussed. Today's story is from L.W., who tells us of her family's experiences adopting a son independently from Ukraine.

We have 4 daughters in a row and then a "caboose" son, six years junior to his next oldest sister. We felt bad for him that he was the only boy and so much younger than his sisters. I had him when I was 38, so really didn't... more