UKEADOPT
2003
Our Story
Dan and Connie met in college in 1989 and were married in August of 1991. We planned to have a family but we wanted to wait two years. After the two year wait we had trouble conceiving, but after nine months Connie was pregnant. We found out early that she was five weeks along. Three weeks later Connie was struck with severe pains and after an ultrasound she was rushed to the hospital. It was an ectopic pregnancy and the tube had ruptured. We lost the baby.
Two years later, after numerous infertility treatments and thousands of dollars, Connie was still not pregnant. So we decided to quit throwing our money away and put it towards a domestic adoption. In the State of Illinois in 1996, all parents had to become foster parents in order to adopt. We completed the DCFS FOSTER PRIDE/ADOPT classes. Meanwhile, Dan surfed the net and found an agency that matched birthmothers and adoptive parents for open adoptions. After completing the home study, our Dear Birthmother letter was sent out to prospective birthmothers. Within three weeks we were chosen by a young girl in Pennsylvania. She still had three months left before her due date. She already had two boys that she was struggling to care for and kept telling us that the baby she carried was ours. Well, needless to say, she had a girl and decided to keep her.
Six weeks later we were vacationing in Hawaii when we got a call from our social worker. She said a family had come to them and picked us and the birthmother given birth to a healthy baby boy. The birth grandmother wanted the baby to stay in the home for at least one month and the agency allowed this. Six weeks later the birthmother signed the termination of rights and there was an entrustment ceremony where they handed him over to us and Benjamin was ours. Two months later the judge finalized our adoption and Ben was really ours. Now he is six, very active and very much the light of our lives.
For a second time we tried infertility treatments and after another year without success we knew we would never have children of our own. We still wanted our family to grow so we once again began to investigate an adoption. Although our domestic adoption was very successful, there were a few bumps that we were unhappy with, thus we decided to consider an international adoption. Connie's father was born in Ukraine, so we chose to search for information on adopting from that country. The search led us to Cathy Harris and our journey began.