The adoption professionals at Lifetime Adoption have been helping birth parents and adoptive families come together for over 30 years. In that time, we’ve shared some pretty amazing and inspiring adoption stories. And we love it when you read, comment on, and repost our updates, videos, and stories.
In recognition of National Adoption Awareness Month, we invited our staff of adoption professionals to look back at their favorite memories. We believe that whenever you tell your own adoption story, you help shine a light on issues and needs that others may be facing — and you inspire others to act right alongside you. That is more powerful than any story we could ever tell.
We want to take this chance to recognize our staff for their service in building families through adoption. They have helped so many adoptive couples and birth mothers connect through open adoption! Our caring adoption coordinators are here to help from the moment you first contact us all the way through to completing the adoption itself. Here are some adoption memories that our staff treasures:
Diane Schafer, who has been at Lifetime since 1999:
“We had an adoptive mom who had been waiting a long time for her match. Her dad had just passed away and she was going to go to the memorial. Then, we called her! She decided that her dad would have rather had her go get her new baby boy than come to his memorial service.
So without hesitation, she said yes to the match! Fortunately, the birth mom delivered in the same state as her. The adoptive mom got in her car, and had to dig her way out because there was a raging snow storm. She booked it to the hospital to meet her new son!” shares Diane.
Diane also shared that she enjoys working with birth parents the most. “Many people take birth parents for granted,” she says. “They need our support, they need someone to just listen and then get them the help they are seeking. And most importantly, they need to know that their child is growing up happy and healthy. Adoptive families should know how important those cards and photos are to a birth parent, especially one without family support.”
Veronica Hofheinz, joined Lifetime in 2002
“My favorite memory is getting to meet with a birth mother who lives locally. I worked with her through her adoption, and we remain Facebook friends to this day. She continues to have an open adoption with her son’s adoptive family, even after 10 years. They have a beautiful relationship!” says Veronica.
“It is a privilege to participate in the various stages of adoption with both the families and birth parents,” she continues. “It is always exciting to witness the joy of the adoptive families, and the promise of a secure future for the child. I’m so happy that we can also offer help and hope to the birth parents as well through scholarships and other assistance. It’s important that the birth parents not be forgotten.”
Tiffany Bayless, who’s worked at Lifetime since 2015
“Four years ago, I worked with a local birth mother who made a big impact on my life. The family she chose to adopt her baby had recently decided to adopt again.”
“They ended up getting matched with another local birth mother I was working with. This birth mother delivered at a hospital close to our office. So, I was able to see the adoptive family, their daughter they adopted four years ago, and the new baby. I was so happy I was able to be part of both their adoptions and help both of their birth mothers!” Tiffany says.
“In my heart, I knew that helping others achieve the gift of having children was the calling God set for me. I truly love my job!” Tiffany exclaims. She looks forward to creating many more happy memories with adoptive families and birth mothers.
Now it’s your turn! What’s your favorite memory from your adoption journey? Share it below by leaving us a comment!
Heidi Keefer is a Content Creator for Lifetime Adoption and has over 15 years of experience in the field of adoption. An author of thousands of articles and social media posts over the years, Heidi enjoys finding new ways to educate and captivate Lifetime’s ever-growing list of subscribers.
Heidi has a keen eye for misplaced apostrophes, comma splices, and well-turned sentences, which she has put to good use as a contributor to Lifetime’s award-winning blogs. She has written and published hundreds of adoption articles which explore the various facets of domestic infant adoption today.
Watching the way God has perfectly worked everything together, even when we weren’t expecting it. I can’t wait to see this thing through with Him!
There are so many things but one story that I don’t think some people believe is; We were stationed overseas in Germany when we decided to adopt. A coworker whose sister that lived in W Virginia told us how her sister had just adopted from Lifetime. We did all the research and started the process. We soon received orders to CA, we ended up at Beale AFB and moved into the exact same town as Lifetime all without realizing where Lifetime was located until we went to mail a check and realized it was just 3 miles a way.. We ended up hand delivering it. Though none of this was necessary as Lifetime helps families nationwide, I knew then that it was meant to be for us!