We have now officially approved the US Embassy to conduct DNA testing on our future son and his birth mother. This, to us, is a huge step and it happened quite quickly after submitting our POA (Power of Attorney). The Child’s Dossier has also been completed and they are gearing up to submit everything to Family Court.
I have learned that Family Court and DNA happen concurrently so that the birth mother only has to travel to Guatemala City one time (she attends Family Court and at the same time she will go to the US Embassy to do the DNA …read more

What made my heart ache…
…watching the young man (in his early twenties) struggle with the immigration paperwork only to have to ask the person next to him to fill it out. He was illiterate.
…watching the foster mother walk out the hotel door with my future son.

It is often said that an adopted child is born from the heart. I know that AJ certainly was born in my heart. The first time I saw his picture I was sitting alone in my classroom shaking, my eyes tearing with joy because I knew, in my heart and deep in my soul that I had finally found my child.
Months later when I was sitting in a social worker’s office in Russia waiting for him to come to the room I paced nervously. How would he react to me? Would he like me? Would he let me hold him? …read more

As a writer I am finding this daunting because it is so personal. How can I possibly ask a woman carrying a child to place that child with our family forever?
Birth parents have the opportunity to chose the families their children are placed with forever. But writing that letter can be one of the most difficult things a husband and wife ever does.
What should go into that letter?