Que & Brittany Mangus - Utah

Que and I were married in May, 2001. After years of surgeries and doctors' appointments, we started to look into adoption. We went to the initial adoption orientation in the late summer of 2007 but it took us another year to really feel "ready". We began the adoption process in the fall of 2008 and were approved in December, 2008. In February we contacted a neighbor and asked her to make us some pass along cards. We mailed them to everyone we knew. In April 2009, (in what could only be described as divine intervention) both my mom and my friend ended up giving our adoption card to a hair stylist who mentioned her roommate was pregnant and was choosing adoption. They didn't know they went to the same hair salon, and they ended up doing this at different times on the same day. Our birth mom got our pass along card twice from two different people in one day! She kept the cards in her wallet (in fact, they are still in her wallet) and kept us in mind as she weighed all her options. She contacted and met us in June, 2009. On July 3rd she told us she had chosen us! She invited us to all of her doctor's appointments and I was there October 15, 2009 in the delivery room when our son Liam was born. Liam was placed with us on October 17, 2009, which was 1 year from the day we took our adoption classes at LDS Family Services. We love our son very much and are so grateful for those people in our life who were brave enough to share with others our hope to adopt. Without them, we wouldn't be a family!

Que, Brittany and Liam
queandbrittanysblog.blogspot.com
queandbrittany@yahoo.com

Jared & Esther Edwards - Kentucky

Jared and I had discussed adoption for years but never felt like the time was right. Then in December 2007 we attended our Stake Conference when one of the speakers was from LDS Family Services. When we came home we both discovered that during the meeting we individually felt that it was time to begin the adoption process, that Heavenly Father had a special baby in mind for us.

We contacted LDS Family Services and in February of 2008 we met with our social worker and began the process. In Sept 2008 we were finally in the waiting stage of the adoption process. We decided to help “find” our baby by making a second profile for the new LDS website. But we put this off for a few months, then one day I felt the Spirit confirm to me that if we did not get the new profile completed, we would not have the baby Heavenly Father intended for us. We finished the second profile and three weeks later an expecting mother contacted us.

We emailed long, detailed letters back and forth with this mother for about a month and then agreed to have phone contact with her. We talked on the phone and texted often every week for about a month and then she officially made the decision to place her baby with us. The Spirit was consistently confirming that this was Heavenly Father’s plan to all of us. We have so much love for our birthmother and she for us. The birthmother wanted us there for the birth (May 2009) and even arranged for us to have a room at the hospital.

We were there for the birth of our daughter, Aurora, and it was an incredible experience but also draining and surreal. Every day I look at my daughter and I am amazed at how much joy and love is in my life. We knew we wanted to have a family but we never realized how wonderful it would be to have our daughter and to have our birthmother in our lives (we are in contact on a regular basis). Adoption is by far the best thing that has ever happened to us and we feel so grateful for all that have helped us in many different ways to accomplish the establishing of our family! I think all the ways to “find” the child meant for you (pass along cards, blogs, profiles etc…) can work with the Spirit’s guidance.

Jared and Esther are interested in being mentors to others who are considering adoption or working through the adoption process. If you have questions or just want to know more about how it was like for them or to discuss how it is going for you please contact them at ejmedwards@gmail.com or check out their blog at http://everydayedwardsfamily.blogspot.com

Steve & Janell Waldron - Nevada

We had just past our second anniversary and I felt a sense of urgency to complete our case study. When we started the process we had never heard of designated adoption. It was not something that was encouraged at that time. In 1998 LDS FS only handled closed adoptions. We were visiting with my uncle who was a doctor in another state and we had asked him to do our physicals for the paperwork. He told us about a patient that he had who was pregnant and uninterested in parenting. We called our social worker and let him know about her and we were advised that we could not know any identifying information about the birth mother or LDS FS would be unable to help us complete the adoption. We were so excited. A few weeks before the due date, the birth mother decided to parent and that adoption fell through. That sense of urgency remained though. We finished the paperwork and were approved in the fall of 1998.

As we continued to wait, my husband Steve, a CPA, often did audits for a local non-profit foundation. The director of the non-profit, Sally, had a three-year old daughter that she had adopted. Steve and Sally would occasionally talk about adoption and how we hoped one day to be able to adopt too. In May of 1999, we got a phone call from Sally. An emergency room doctor she knew had a patient that had just come in and given birth to a baby boy and did not want to parent. He knew she had adopted in the past and wanted to know if she was still interested in adopting any more children. We were her first phone call. We said YES! Three days our son Levi came home. That began our amazing adoption adventure. I am so grateful that my husband opened his mouth and talked about adoption. I am so gratedful that we were able to find our son even though we didn't know to look. The Lord loves us and wants us to be happy. He wants us to know the joy of parenthood.
Steve & Janell Waldron

Dan & Shalee Brown - Idaho

Thanksgiving was approaching and our cards were addressed and sealed. A string of events made it difficult for me to get to the post office, but I told Dan that they HAD to be out by the Friday before the holiday. We ended up sending out over 100 cards. I figured that our loved ones would get them, read them, and stow away our story in the back of their mind. I wasn’t sure how long the wait would be, but never dreamed we wouldn’t have to wait at all!

following Monday, my Grandpa Lyle passed away. My dad called me shortly after, and just as I hung up the phone, it rang again. A strange phone number....as I picked up the phone I heard the voice of my cousin, Tate. All he said was, "This is really strange, but I think we might know someone who has a baby for you." Their family had received our card that day. He told me his wife had a niece, Sam, who had a baby and might be looking for an adoptive family. He asked if they could pass along our information to her and if she was interested, if she could call us. Of course we said yes. Not even five minutes later, she called us. As I answered the phone, she introduced herself and said with a breaking voice, "I have a three week old son. Would you adopt him?" We talked for a while, trying to get to know each other. I kept thinking to myself how calm I felt, that I wasn’t nervous at all...which is odd for me. When I spoke to Tate’s wife, Janet later that night she told me the second round of miraculous events. She and Sam are close. Sam had lost custody of her baby and asked Janet to come and be with her for her court date that day to try and regain custody. Janet had a lot going on and didn’t know if she should go. She felt very strongly the day before that she needed to be there. After a long (and not great) day in court, Janet, Sam and her fiancé were driving home. Tate had called Janet and told her about our card; how it had come in the mail that day and said, "What are the odds that we would get this card on this day, while you are there? They want a baby, and we know someone who has one." Janet didn’t think they were interested in making an adoption plan. As she drove, Janet felt that she needed to mention our family and throw out the option. Sam seemed open to it and asked if there was a way to find out more about us. Janet got our adoption blog information and passed it on. She told Sam to think about it for a few days. After Janet dropped them off and was about 20 minutes down the road, Sam called and said, "Yep, that’s the family."

Sam never wavered in her choice to place the baby with us. We were able to talk to her almost every night. Though there were a few bumps in the road, the calm I felt the first time I talked to Sam continued and gave us a strong reassurance that Blake was meant to be in our family. His arrival is nothing short of a miracle and I am grateful every second for him, for his amazing and courageous birthmom, and for the promptings of the Holy Ghost (and people who listen!).

Dan & Shalee Brown
dan_shalee@loveable.com

Daniel & Hanna Perazzo - Nevada

Shortly after we were married we decided that we wanted to start a family. We knew right away that something was wrong and found out that I have endometreosis. I had surgery to try to clear some of it up and we continued to dream about a baby. We felt like there were more questions than answers about what steps we should take next. After a lot of prayer and fasting, I was given a beautiful blessing where I was told that I needed to pursue the feelings that I had had concerning adoption. I had been researching agencies and was very impressed with LDS Family Services. I called to get the initial paperwork but was told that their policy would not allow us to adopt until we had been married for two years. I asked for the application anyway and quickly filled it out. It sat for more than four months...waiting for the day that we could send it in. In the meantime Daniel and I were trying to make the most out of each day and having fun together. We went to Disneyland and Ohio while waiting. We bought our first home and were busy fixing it up before we moved in. The day after we moved in, November 10th, 2006 we received a phone call that changed our lives.

I was on the computer at my parent's house when Daniel came in to talk to me. He said that I needed to turn the computer off and listen to him. I thought that someone had died or something! He said, "now don't get your hopes up, but my mom says that she may have found us a Christmas present." I, being sarcastic as always chimed in, "A Hummer?!" I will never forget my sweet husband looking me in the eyes and saying, "no. A baby girl." The questions started pouring out of my mouth and the tears came pouring out of my eyes. The next day Brinley's birthmother talked to my mother-in-law on the phone and told her that her daughter deserved a mom AND a dad and that she felt like we needed to be her daughter's parents.

For a few months I had had dreams and this feeling in my gut that our child would be bi-racial. When we found out about our little B no one said anything about it, but I kept insisting to Daniel that she was...she had to be! It was casually mentioned later that her birthfather was Chilean. And I knew. This little girl was meant to be our daughter.

She was due on December 18th. That was the longest 5 weeks of my life!!! Every time the phone rang we wondered it this was IT, THE CALL! She was born on December 14th, 2006 as Daniel and I were driving from Nevada to Utah to meet her. Our phone rang and Daniel's mom said the sweetest words he's ever heard, "hi DADDY!"

We met Brin when she was 12 hours old. We were both so nervous that were literally leaning on each other for support. We knocked on the hospital door and were invited in. Daniel's aunt was there and in her arms was a perfect little bundle with a mohawk of brown hair. Neither of us could really speak as we got to hold our daughter for the first time and visit with her birthmom. For those of you who have delivered your children, I'm sure you understand the spiritual experience that it is! Brinley's soul searched mine as we locked eyes and I felt like she and I both said, "welcome home" to each other.

Daniel & Hanna Perazzo
banana_durango@yahoo.com

Tim & Heidi Naylor - Utah

We are the parents to 3 amazing kids. Brayden 4 adopted through Foster Care at age 3, Taylor 4 adopted through LDSFS as birth, Annabella 19 months adopted through Foster Care at 9 months.

We started the adoption process in 2002 with LDSFS. We did pass along cards, our profile on itsaboutlove, and letters to friends, family and coworkers. In May of 2004 after being so frustrated about the adoption process I asked a friend's husband to give me a blessing. In that blessing he told me that Heavenly Father was preparing children that were on their way to me now. That he was aware of the desires of my heart and that he was ever mindful of me. A few weeks later we received an email from a young woman stating she was pregnant and that she knew we were to be the parents of the child she was carrying. We later found out she was the sister in law of one of Tim's Coworkers. We had a very open adoption. We attended all her Dr.s appointments and were their in the delivery room when Taylor was born. Taylor was born in Nov. 2004. I forgot all about the promise that children were on their way to me. Fast forward to Dec. 2006 a little boy had been left at a Stake Center in West Valley with a note attached explaining the Mom was to young and that she wanted this baby placed for adoption. He was in the care of DCFS. I was very familiar with the process because of my work as a Substance Abuse Counselor. I called DCFS that night inquiring about that child. We felt driven to pursue this child. After having our home study sent to DCFS we received an e-mail from a woman stating we were not Foster Parents and it would not be fair to even consider us when there were so many other people licensed through the state. We started to ponder what we were to learn through this experience. We concluded that maybe we should consider being foster parents.

We had, had a friend pass away so we spent all day making arrangements to go to the viewing, which included finding someone to fill in for me in Young Womens, and finding a baby sitter. Then we got a call from our Case Worker at LDSFS she explained she felt very strongly that she needed to call us and tell us about a special training they had arranged for couples waiting to adopt through LDSFS to become trained as Foster Parents through the state. She explained that it started in 45 minutes at BYU and they would lock the doors at 6:15p.m. I called Tim at work explained what Becky had said. We laughed at how obvious this answer was from our Heavenly Father. So we became foster parents and fostered 3 children in our home. They eventually went to live with family and then the call came. A woman named Trish from DCFS called... she stated that we were not even a family we they were considering but asked if I would please hear her out. She stated that there was a 3 yr old blonde blue eyed little boy legally free for adoption. She explained some of his back ground and then stated he was small for his age, speech delayed, and that he bit when he was frustrated. I laughed at her thinking I had just buckled Taylor in his car seat and knew he was not in DCFS custody. She said I know this sounds weird but I really feel strongly that this child belongs in your home (She later shared that they had considered many familys for him, she was at the end of her rope and she turned to her Heavenly Father for guidance. Our name came to her and the rest is history) I called Tim who was in California for work, I then called his foster mom and talked about him and where he was at. We agreed to meet him the day after Thanksgiving. When we walked in the door it was as though Taylor and Braydens spirits recognized each other. We knew in the first 2 minutes that Brayden was meant to be ours. We called Trish after the visit and told her we wanted Brayden in our home. On Tuesday we were approved to adopt Brayden and he was in our home the next day Nov 27th, 2007. This all happened with in a week. When I called my friends whose husband had given me the blessing she reminded me that I was promised "children" were on their way to me. Brayden is two months older than Taylor. They were both on their way to me when I had that blessing.

Brayden was sealed to us on our 11th Wedding Anniversary. Three days before we were to bless Brayden we got another call from DCFS. Taylors biological ½ sister was in DCFS care. They asked us if we would take her. In December 2008 we were blessed to be able to adopt Annabella. She will be sealed to us on our 12th Anniversary.

Tim & Heidi Naylor
www.poohterbug.wordpress.com

Brad & Brenda Horrocks - Utah

1st Adoption:
We were approved in 1998. During our classes we were introduced to what was then a new idea….Designated adoption. We were encouraged to tell everyone we knew about our hopes to adopt and how they could help. We did just that. We also got involved in FSA and while serving as Co-Secretaries for our chapter we created friendships with many chapters members. We spoke to everyone in our families and shared our hopes with people at work and in our wards. We took every opportunity to talk about our hopes for a family. We also did outreach presentations and anything else that would help us meet people. In December of 1999 we were chosen by a Birth Mother. Our joy turned to sorrow as she decided to parent after much pressure from her family. A short time later one of our FSA friends asked us if it was ok to share our information with someone her uncle knew who was pregnant and looking to place. We of course said yes. In May of 2000 this birth mother went into LDS FS and ended up choosing us. Our daughter was placed in our arms in July of 2000. We know that following the prompting to serve in FSA was inspired and it was the key to getting our information to the Birth Mother the Lord had in mind for us!

2nd Adoption:
We were approved in September of 2001. Because of our first adoption we knew that being involved and spreading the word were important in our journey to a second child. In February 2002 we put our profile on hopetoadopt.com and then sent an email out to all of our family and friends letting them know our desire to adopt another child and how they could help. We linked them to our online profile. Brad forwarded this same email to co-workers. Within a very short period of time Brad heard from one of his co-workers about a girl who was living with them and that she just found out she was pregnant. A couple of months later this girl went to LDS FS requesting us. We met with this girl and her boyfriend. They hadn’t decided to place with us or even for sure placed at all…. they just wanted to meet us to help them decide what to do. A few days later they wrote us a letter announcing they had chosen us to be parents for their baby. The Birth Mother was only about 12 weeks along so we were able to get to know them through letters and another face to face meeting during the pregnancy. Our second daughter was born on Halloween of 2002 and placed in our arms 2 days later. Once again we felt the Lord guide us in our finding efforts. The tools that were needed became available and our information got to the Birth Couple the Lord had in mind for us.

3rd Adoption:
We started paperwork a year or so before getting approved. Shortly before being approved (April of 2005) we felt inspired to do what we called “Horrocks Adoption Kick-Off”. We worked with our worker to get the timing just right and held this kick-off within days of being approved and having our profile up and running on itsaboutlove.org. From our first two adoptions we knew how important it was to do all we could to get our information to everyone we knew and more. One day a favorite scripture came to mind which became our family motto during this 3rd journey to adoption. It is found in “Doctrine and Covenants 123:17
“Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.” Our kick-off was very successful. We had many family, friends and ward members come to learn how they could help us. We passed out pass along cards and showed them our online profile. We invited an FSA member to come and give a brief version of the outreach presentation. Our guests left with the beginnings of a testimony of adoption. We received incredible support from all of these people and the support spread. We continued to have people ask for more pass along cards and in the end 800 + were given out to our “helpers”. We also sent our monthly email reminders and other adoption related information. We put our profile links on our signature line. We tried to spread the word every way we knew how. After months of working in this way we decided to use another tool. We went online at parentprofiles.com. We received many contacts but most of them didn’t write back or turned out to be a scam. One scammer that was particularly crafty hurts us deeply. After being on parentprofiles.com for almost 3 months we received 2 real contacts. Both were LDS girls….one was even working with LDS FS. We felt a strong connection when we got the first email from the first of these 2 girls. Her name was Samantha. We quickly sent an email to her…but it came back to us as undeliverable. We tried a few more times with no luck. We then noticed that she included her phone number so after saying a prayer for courage we called her. We spoke for only a moment and let her know we tried to email. She said she would email again. We didn’t hear from her so we tried texting her as a one last try. Weeks later she emailed again and a great friendship developed. She was undecided but seemed to be leaning toward parenting. We felt such a strong connection to her we continued contact. While this was all going on we had received contact from the second LDS girl, Tamara (named changed). She lived in another state. She decided very early on to place with us so we went through the whole pregnancy with her and drove up to her state to attend the ultrasound. We were excited. Meanwhile Samantha decided to parent but we still felt such a strong connection we thought maybe we were to be a support to her and our friendship with her grew. She went back and forth a couple more times about her decision and came up to Salt Lake to meet us. But she again decided to parent. She called us the day her baby boy was born (April 2006) and called us many times after that.

At the end of July 2006 Tamara, who had chosen us for her baby girl gave birth and decided to parent. Samantha was one of the first to call and offer support. She continued to call and we would chat often. In December of 2006 she called again only this time it was a different type of phone call. After parenting for almost 8 months Samantha felt that her little boy was meant for our family. Six days later, December 17th Sam placed her son in our arms.

Our 3rd adoption was a long trying journey but once again the Lord guided us as we moved forward and did all we could….then He stepped in and did the rest.
You can read more about our 3rd adoption here.
Brad and Brenda Horrocks
Cutefamilyof5@gmail.com
http://anothersmalladventure.blogspot.com/

Ron & Jessica West - Utah

We were approved in December 2006. We new we had to find our baby and we worked hard. We got involved immediately with FSA and both church and community outreach. We printed business cards. We started our blog. We just knew we would be chosen right away. A year went by and we started trying to get creative. We poured money in to Parent Profiles. We even had vinyl letter placed on our car with our parent profiles page. We sent emails to everyone we knew and everyone they knew. And we got increasingly frustrated waiting to find a baby with LDSFS.

We had some money in savings from the sale of our condo but had plans for that money and we liked the low fee offered by LDSFS. Finally though we realized that we needed to look elsewhere. We researched several different agencies from New York to Texas and finally settled on
A Guardian Angel, a South Jordan agency. We requested to have our home study sent over and sent them a rough draft of what would eventually be our profile.
3 weeks later we were matched to our sweet ZJ's birthmother. It turns out that the very day we decided to go to them, was the day she went to them. The cost of the adoption was the same as the amount of savings we had.

Holding my sweet little ZJ, and looking forward 6 months to the day he will be sealed to us, I am filled with peace. There is nothing else that I could have bought that I will get to keep FOREVER.
In our story a valuable question is asked that apply to all that are still waiting. Your participation this adoption journey means that someone is missing from your family. What are you willing to sacrifice to bring them home?
Ron & Jessica West
http://ronandjessica.blogspot.com/

Matt & Stacy Schaumburg - Louisiana

Our success came a lot quicker than what we thought would happen. We got our approval letter from LDS Family Services in mid-April 2008. Now living in Louisiana, we felt we needed all the help we could get to put ourselves out there. We were informed to prepare ourselves for a 2-3 year wait. With my husband in the military that timeframe wasn’t acceptable for us. We would move by then and have to start all over again. We prayerfully set a date for June 30^th to be in contact with our birth mother. We took a huge leap of faith knowing He knew our time table better than we did. We felt prompted to create business cards, t-shirts, calendar magnets, complete our website with the agency and Parent Profiles (www.ParentProfiles.com) the largest paid website for prospective adoptive couples.
We created our website and had it up and running May 1, 2008. We used humor and fun family photos that weren’t posed except the Birth Parent Letter page. The intro text on the search engine was the key to our ultimate succes. We gave a quick 3 sentences about who we were and the openness of the adoption we were seeking. Immediately we have a tremendous response of birth mothers. Within four weeks we had 10 birth parents/grand parents contact us. We felt our birth mother had already contacted us by May 31^st. She felt we were sincere; open to a different ethincity; and we desired to have an open adoption. These were all the things she was looking for. July 1^st our precious daughter, Madelyn was born. July 3^rd we were able to take her from the hospital to the hotel awaiting the Interstate Adoption Compact to be complete. July 18^th we were able to travel home. It was the most incredible, quick journey of adoption. What we thought would take 2 years took us 3 months.
Matt and Stacy Schaumburg
http://Mattandstacy-adoption.blogspot.com

Sean & Elaine Curry - Colorado

After 2 successful adoptions through LDS Family Services we wondered if it could happen again. We felt that putting in our adoption paperwork again was the right thing, and so that is what we did in March of 2004. The months passed slowly and, naturally, we felt a strong desire to do something rather than just waiting. After much prayer, we created an email that we passed along to friends and family members. We asked them to forward this email along to those they felt would be receptive. We also prayed that it would be well-received and that the intent of our letter would be felt and that it would not be offensive. We talked about adoption with many people, always letting them know that we were hoping to adopt again. We created an adoption website with Hope To Adopt and passed along that website in our emails and in our conversations with pass-along cards. We revisited our emailed letter every 3 or 4 months, and sent it out each time as a reminder that we were still hoping and praying for another child to join our family. We fasted many, many times and asked our family and LDS friends to fast with us. We were spiritually and emotionally intent during that time and we felt much hope through blessings and guidance received through personal revelation.

Almost two years later we were contacted by a birthmother who said she wasn’t sure what to do, but if she did choose adoption and if she felt she could follow through on that choice, she would place her baby with us. Because of the uncertainty of this situation we continued to remain open to other situations. That birthmother eventually gave birth and placed her baby girl with us in March of 2006, but in the meantime another situation had come up and through our Relief Society president we began to communicate with the birth family. 6 months after our daughter’s birth, we had another baby, our first son, join our family through a designated adoption, and as a direct result of our continued emails/updates and pleas for prayers on our behalf. There were so many people that told us that they were touched by our willingness to share our journey, our feelings and our hopes. I am so thankful we did! We feel that we were led along, step by step, in knowing what to say in our letters, when to send them, and how best to convey our feelings about adoption and how it had impacted our lives. It was a great blessing that we could share our heart-felt testimonies and experiences with more people. Not only that, but it gave us purpose, helped us feel more positive and optimistic and as though were doing all that we could do to allow our Father in Heaven to bless us with another child, if it was His will. When our babies finally came, there were scores of people that shared our joy, as they had been a part of our journey to find them. That was an added bonus that we hadn’t considered in the beginning when we first decided to open up our lives to those around us!

Sean and Elaine Curry

curryclan@comcast.net

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