Last episode, we had Kelene on the show, who is a birth mother that made an adoption plan 26 years ago. That little baby girl, named Chrissy, was born early and was only 3 pounds. Kelene and the adoptive parents worked together to love this little baby and today she joins the show! This is the first ADOPTION NOW episode to have both the birth mother and the adoptee together sharing their journey. It’s an incredible story and it’s so helpful in understanding open adoption.

Open Adoption from the Adoptee's Perspective [S3E17]

Real stories about the joys and challenges of the adoption journey. You'll hear from parents and families who've been through infant and international adoption, foster-to-adopt, and even embryo adoption. These inspiring stories are told from the perspective of the adoptee, birth parent or adoptive parent.

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After Michael and Naomi’s unsuccessful attempts to start a family, they were led to a fertility clinic where they were diagnosed with male-factor infertility. They were told IVF would be the only real option. The couple experienced a lot of grief and started praying about what to do to become parents. They started to research their options when God opened the door to the National Embryo Donation Center in Knoxville, Tennessee!!  This is where Michael and Naomi began their life-changing journey of becoming pregnant with two adopted boys through embryo adoption and the real twist of the story is the twins are NOT biologically related. What a MIRACLE STORY!!! In this episode, they want to encourage other couples facing infertility that what feels like God’s “NO” in your life (infertility, loss, etc.) may actually be leading you face-to-face with His beautiful and perfect “YES” for your family. 

Embryo Twins: Michael and Naomi's Embryo Adoption Story [S7E21]

Adoption doesn’t always have to be a daunting task! Jordan Moreno’s story tells us that the timeline might be faster than you think! Jose and Jordan have a beautiful adoption story, as they all are, but this one had an ease about it that will make anyone who is nervous feel at peace that everything can fall perfectly into place and QUICKLY!!! They announced to their family in November that they had plans to adopt, finished their home study in February, matched in June and their daughter was born July 2nd!!! After experiencing secondary infertility for 5 years after their son was born, the family was so grateful to be able to expand their family through adoption and want to encourage others in this journey!

Adoption in 5 Months! Jordan Moreno Shares her Adoption Story [S7E20]

Brady and Andrea Murray are the proud parents of eleven children, seven of which are adopted. After having a biological child diagnosed with Down Syndrome, the couple started RODS Heroes, which was founded in 2013. RODS Heroes inspires families to answer the call to adopt a child with Down Syndrome or other unique circumstances. As they were helping other families, they went to China to bring home their son, Cooper, who has become the baseball star you see on Instagram @bradymurray21. The couple went on to adopt two daughters from foster-care and then said yes to another international adoption, this time from Colombia. They just recently traveled and brought home a sibling group of 4 to join the family!  Listen to this episode to hear about adopting special needs children from China, how to start your process adopting from Colombia and how adopting through the foster care system might be the right path for you! 

RODS Heroes: Brady and Andrea Murray's Adoption Story [S7E19]

Jenell M. Jones is the author of “Shattered,” a book that shares her experience as an adoptive mother. Last week we heard her story on adopting Mercy from the foster care system. Mercy joined the family of 6 children and had many mental and physical traumas that affected her day-to-day life. On part two, Jenell talks about how the system is set up to help children but often fails to provide resources to help foster children heal and be able to thrive in a family. On this episode she shares about the next level of trauma that vulnerable children could face. How does adoption and foster care play into human trafficking? What is being done to protect our children?

Shattered Part Two: Author Jenell M. Jones Shares Her Story on Foster Care and Human Trafficking [S7E18]

Jenell M. Jones is the author of “Shattered,” a book that shares her experience as an adoptive mother. Jenell is currently operating multiple early learning centers, which specialize in providing high quality learning experiences to children who experience trauma in low-income areas, while also raising 7 children! When she brought home Mercy she found out that her expectations about adoption were shattered.  Her passion is helping foster parents and adoptive parents ask the right questions on this journey. In this episode we get very real about the day-to-day challenges of raising children with mental and physical trauma. She gives advice to parents (and soon to be parents) on what they need to hear most about the foster care system. What questions do you ask social workers? What do you need to be prepared for when bringing home an older child? What do you need to know about trauma and loss?  This episode helps us understand how important it is that children find healing and what resources Jenell had to use to hopefully lead her daughter to find truth and peace in her story.

Open Adoption from the Adoptee's Perspective [S3E17]

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