Jump to content

Brian and Cathy

Forum eLite
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,450

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Brian and Cathy

  3. Finding the Right Agency For You

    in Looking to Adopt

    Posted

    Then this morning I was watching "Adoption Stories" on the Discovery channel and Abrazo was featured!! What was even better was the family was "againers" also!! It was enough to start my day off right! We are now just waiting for Abrazo to accept applications for "againers" so we can send ours in! I can not wait to start our next adoption journey! :)

    I missed it :lol:

    Hoping you get your invite soon :) We'd love to follow your journey :D

    Cathy

  5. Picking & Choosing

    in Looking to Adopt

    Posted

    Ok... I realize that everyone must "set their own limits" with regards to the "type" of case (read: child) they're willing to accept, but today was a first:

    I reviewed the first-ever application from a prospective adoptive couple who wrote in the margins that they will not consider any case in which the birthmother drank a caffeinated beverage during the course of her pregnancy.

    Elizabeth, you said there would be a first. . .though I don't believe you were referring to something like this.

    Is this AC really open to "open adoption" :huh: As I often say though, "to each his/her own."

    Cathy

  7. Hidden Pregnancies

    in Considering Adoption?

    Posted

    Here's a story of a birthmom in Montana who hid her pregnancy from everyone until right before the end-- and recently reunited with her son, forty-five years after she'd placed him for adoption: No Secrets, No Lies.

    Nice to see another happy ending :)

    I think it's sad that so many times adoptees have been told their birth mother is no longer living :( Why are they told that if it's not true? To keep them from looking?

    Cathy

  9. Financing An Adoption

    in Looking to Adopt

    Posted

    For those needing assistance with adoption costs, you might check out www.helpusadopt.org, a new nonprofit foundation committed to giving grants twice a year to assist would-be adoptive parents with the expenses associated with that endeavor. (Please note: Abrazo is not affiliated with this organization and our inclusion of its website should not be construed as an endorsement, as we are only passing along the information provided to us via press release and have no knowledge of this group or its practices.)

    Thanks, Stork, for passing on this information. According to the site, it will be launched November 1, 2007.

    Cathy

  10. Home Study

    in Looking to Adopt

    Posted

    Our SW is very reasonalbe and a visit and update report will be less than $200. She also lives only 10 minutes away from our house so could get her very quickly if necessary.

    Ours as well :) However, the distance is about 1 1/2 hours for our SW :(

    Cathy

  11. Open Adoption

    in Looking to Adopt

    Posted

    I know they are just trying to protect us, but I think it's going to take a while for them to get used to this idea that "C" will be in our lives as extended family FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    It's early for Brian and me, but I've been reminding our family (mostly mine) that our child's BP will forever be a part of our family. I think part of it has to do with their age and thefact that they grew up in closed adoptions and aren't that familiar with open adoptions (yet).

    Cathy

  12. Profiles: Presenting... YOU!

    in Looking to Adopt

    Posted

    Oh, no worries. No offense taken or anything. I too wondered the same thing when we started the birthparent call process.

    I think Elizabeth explained it well in her response above, which was the basic understanding I had of how the process works.

    So, your questions are natural. There were times that I thought, I wonder why I didn't get a call to talk with "Them" or did they not like my profile or why are things working out for couples in the new orientation groups and not for us, we've been waiting much longer ? The thing to remember is that the Right birthmother/birthparents will find you when the time is right. We can't rush these things which is hard because we all (PIWs) SO want to be parents...NOW! :lol:

    Thanks, Adam and Elizabeth for your explanations. I do understand that we can not go forward until our homestudy is done. I completely understand that. I even told Angela that this past week when we spoke about how far along we were with our homestudy. I was just curious because I thought the profile was how a BP was informed about an AP. Based on what I've learned so far, I didn't think about those who have their homestudy done before their profile :o

    Thanks, again to you both!

    Cathy

  13. Profiles: Presenting... YOU!

    in Looking to Adopt

    Posted

    That is interesting because of the roughly 12 birthmothers we spoke with during our adoption journey, only 3, maybe 4 had even seen our profile. We matched with "J" earlier this year without her even seeing our profile :lol: We did later get pictures to her and met her in person so she'd know who we are and what we looked like. :)

    Adam

    Just curious. . .what information were the BMs given if they weren't given your profile? I guess I'm curious as to what they based their decision on?

    Please don't take this wrong--from what I know you and Beth very much deserve to be selected :)

    Cathy

  14. Profiles: Presenting... YOU!

    in Looking to Adopt

    Posted

    Most birthmoms that I have talked to and even matched with have told me that they chose us based on the pictures. Some even said they just skimmed over the wording so definately put in great pictures that tell your story!

    We took a copy of our profile with us when we went to some friends last night. It ended up getting passed around. One person who was especially impressed was an adoptee. She looked at our cover picture and said from that photo alone she could tell we were a nice and sincere couple. The interesting thing was that we had never met her before, this was our first introduction :rolleyes: We also pointed out our wedding photo and told her that sometimes it's suggested that you should leave that photo out if it's an old photo. Well, having been married over 17 years it's obviously an out-dated photo. She glanced at it again and said we didn't look old :D Now, if we can just find a BP who agrees with her :P

    Cathy

  15. Putting up a Praise!!!

    in Abrazo's Chapel Potluck

    Posted

    I did not mention this earlier because we had not gotten in touch with Nichole, and I didn't want her to find out on the forum.

    I'm sure Nichole appreciated you holding off on sharing this information about Joshua until you could tell her personally :) I know my dad hates learning something about me from someone else--even at this age :(

    I'm glad that Joshua is feeling better.

    Cathy

  16. The Welcome Wagon!

    in Looking to Adopt

    Posted

    Hi-

    My name is Maureen. My husband, Dan, and I are currently looking to adopt. If anyone has used this Agency in Maryland, who did you have to go through for your homestudy?

    Thanks,

    Maureen :D

    Welcome Maureen and Dan. I can't assist with your homestudy question since I live in Tennessee, but I wanted to at least welcome you to the Forum :)

    Cathy

  20. Open Adoption

    in Looking to Adopt

    Posted

    Hey Cathy,

    Some times parents don't understand the whole openess thing. . .

    Paula

    Paula,

    I'm sure this is true--especially since closed adoption was pretty much the only option in the past. My dad has admitted he thinks part of it is because he has watched too many negative stories about adoption on TV. I told his girlfriend I will share many articles and books that we read so he can see why we chose open adoption :)

    Cathy

  22. Open Adoption

    in Looking to Adopt

    Posted

    I am absolutely amazed when we find out that couples who adopted with us YEARS ago have not yet told their children they're adopted. :(

    Strike that-- I'm appalled. :angry:

    Our placement agreements "require" that folks begin telling the adoption story from the day they take their baby home from here.

    I guess you could say I'm surprised to hear that, Elizabeth :o I guess I assumed that going through Abrazo, everyone realized this is an open adoption agency :huh:

    Cathy

×
×
  • Create New...