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