ADOPTION NOW

Latest Episodes:

Charis Boone Johnson's Story [S2E17] Nov 22, 2017

Show notes

If you were with us last week, you heard Katie and Scott's story about being embryo donors. Today we have a story about an adoptive family that has 3 beautiful children, 2 from traditional adoption and one through embryo adoption. Charis and her husband battled for years with infertility, and tried everything including IVF, IUI and countless tests and diagnostic procedures to find out the cause of their struggles. After realizing that this was not the way they were going to grow their family, they attempted both foster to adopt and agency organized domestic adoption on three different occasions, all which failed, leaving them heartbroken and with empty arms. After all the heartbreak however, Charis met with a lawyer who led them down the path of private adoption, ultimately resulting in the birth of their first daughter. They were looking to grow their family further when a friend introduced Charis to the idea of embryo adoption, and while her husband took some convincing at first, the rest is history. Charis is now the co-founder of the National Registry for adoption with her friend Katie (last week's guest), which is as they describe it, "the Match.com of embryo donors and waiting families". NRFA allows both donors and waiting families to find and connect with possible matches, a process Charis can vouch for herself after finding a donor family through the service she helped create.

Katie & Scott's Story [S2E16] Nov 15, 2017

Show notes

We are SO excited to be featuring our first embryo adoption donor family story today on the podcast! Katie and Scott were a bit older when they decided that they wanted children, and after researching both fostering and adoption, they were heartbroken and discouraged. After a fateful lunch with a good friend, the idea of surrogacy and IVF was planted, and ultimately proved to be the correct path for them. They ended up being blessed with a set of twins, but also had another set of embryos which they knew they would not be using. Katie and Scott faced the choice that a lot of IVF parents face: Either donate your extra embryos to science, keep them frozen in storage, or discard them. They felt uncomfortable with each of these choices and ended up doing some research of their own. Out of this research came the National Registry for Adoption, which Katie created with her friend Charis, to help pair embryo donors with waiting adoptive families that wanted to carry their adopted children. As she puts it "It's like the Match.com of the embryo donation and adoption world". They decided to donate their embryos to an adoptive family that successfully carried twins. Katie and Scott gave their embryos life and blessed a family with children!! Today they tell ADOPTION NOW about that journey.

Kitty Ravert's Story [S2E15] Nov 08, 2017

Show notes

We often hear the stories of adoptees, birth mothers, and adoptive parents on this podcast, but it is very rare to find ALL THREE in one person! Today's guest Kitty however, has experienced the triad of adoption and today she walks us through the struggles, heartbreak, and happiness she has felt in each of the roles. Kitty Ravert was adopted as a baby into a loving home, she placed a baby in her early 20's and later adopted an African American son. She has found her birth parents, found her biological son and has an open adoption with her son's biological family. This is a must listen to podcast as she is uniquely positioned to speak to every aspect of adoption with the clarity and grace that we all wish we could possess during the difficult and wonderful times that we experience throughout the adoption process.

Michelle Madrid Branch's Story [S2E14] Nov 01, 2017

Show notes

Michelle Madrid Branch understands adoption in ways that most others do not. She is both an adoptee and an adoptive parent. She was adopted in the U.K. as a toddler, found her biological family as a teenager, and after she got married and had one biological son, she and her husband adopted two children internationally. They brought home a son from Russia and a daughter from Ethiopia. Michelle has great insight into the struggles and triumphs that adoption can bring to all those involved. She is truthful about her journey and so inspiring!! She is an author, speaker, and global advocate for women and children. Her books include "Mascara Moments," "Adoption Means Love," and "The Tummy Mummy," which was voted one of the top 25 adoption books for children. She is also the Executive Producer and Host of "The Greater Than Project," which is a documentary web series exploring the intrinsic greatness within women.

Sara Berry's Story [S2E13] Oct 18, 2017

Show notes

We have all heard stories of people who adopt children from abroad and of people who adopt children with disabilities, but today we have a story with both. Sara Berry and her husband were parents to 5 beautiful children when their faith lead them on a path that resulted in the adoption of two children from China. From the start they knew that both children had disabilities but their immediate love for them, made the decision easy, even if the process wasn't always. Sally was their first adoption and underwent surgery within weeks of arriving in the US, but it was Charlie that proved to them that miracles can and do happen. On this podcast Sara discusses how her faith has influenced her decisions throughout life and especially when adopting, and the importance of redefining things for your adoptive children whether they are from the US or abroad. Sara is the author of A Cord of Three Strands and A Broken Mirror, which are adoption based and must reads if you enjoy adoption stories.

Angela Rushing's Story [S2E12] Oct 11, 2017

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Today on the podcast we have a birth mother story from California. Angela Rushing shares her story of how she was brought up in a traumatic household with an alcoholic father and passive aggressive mother, and how this situation ultimately led her to feel unwanted and unnurtured. Before she knew it, she had undergone 2 abortions, and when she found herself pregnant once more, she knew she couldn't do it again. This is where she began to look into private adoptions and discovered the couple who would become the adoptive parents of her child. Angela gets very honest about the whole process and how it wasn't until after she gave birth that the depression and suicidal thoughts triggered her to look into her past to be able to deal with her feelings and come to terms with her life. We also dig into her current life and her relationship with her daughter and how that reconnection has helped her become the woman she is today.

Erik Weihenmayer's Story [S2E11] Oct 04, 2017

Show notes

There are few more challenging achievements that the average person looks up to more than summiting Mt. Everest. Now imagine doing it blind. That's what today's guest Erik Weihenmayer did, becoming the first blind man to do so, along with summiting the rest of the Seven Summits, and kayaking the entire 277 miles of the Grand Canyon on the Colorado River. But his greatest challenge, as he writes in his latest book "No Barriers," was adopting his son Arjun from Nepal and finding a way to fight through the bureaucracy, corruption, and unknowns that can accompany international adoptions. This week on ADOPTION NOW, Erik shares the crazy story of the circumstances around the adoption (there was a civil war in the country at the time), some of the challenges of adopting a 5 year old from a foreign country across the world, and how they were able to integrate Arjun into their family.

The Lucky Few - Heather Avis [S2E10] Sep 27, 2017

Show notes

Heather Avis and her husband are parents of three adopted children, two of whom have Down Syndrome. At the start of their adoption journey, they set out to adopt a healthy baby, but after meeting their future daughter Macy, a baby girl with both Down Syndrome and a congenital heart defect that would require surgery and medication, they found themselves in limbo. Unable to say no to this little girl who needed parents, but unable to say yes to the effect this would have on their lives, they struggled with the decision to adopt her before finally realizing that while it might be a challenge, it was the right step for them to take. Heather is the author of "The Lucky Few" based largely on her experiences adopting children both healthy, and with special needs. On this podcast she shares some of that insight with us, as well as what a blessing it's truly been for her and her family to take the leap and say yes to stepping outside of their preformulated ideal of what their adoptions - and family - would look like. This journey caused them to be one of "The Lucky Few."

Renee's Story [S2E9] Sep 20, 2017

Show notes

Today on the podcast, we are so excited to feature Renee Hettich's story of her experience adopting 4 children internationally. One of her children is from Guatemala, and three of them are from China, our first Chinese adoption story on the podcast! Renee shares how none of the four adoptions went exactly according to plan, with undisclosed health difficulties of which she was unaware at the time, developmental delays and a host of other issues. She knows better than most the challenges of adopting internationally, but she also shares her joy at being able to give lives to these kids who may otherwise have been stuck in the terrible conditions of an orphanage.

Chung and Andra's Story [S2E8] Sep 13, 2017

Show notes

ADOPTION NOW has our first story from Canada! Andra and her husband, Chung, were our first family to apply from a different country. Tune in this week to hear about the Canadian foster care system and how this family found their daughter!

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