Simon and Gloria's Adoption Story

We recently arrived home from Fargo North Dakota with our new baby daughter, Katherine Victoria. Having now adopted both our daughter Katherine and our son Matthew through American Adoptions we felt compelled to write and let you know all that you have done for us.

We have always dreamed of a perfect little family and when we were not blessed with natural children it seemed an easy decision to pursue adoption. This process proved to be somewhat more involved than we had anticipated. We were pleased that we found your agency, where we received assistance in negotiating the minefield of the adoption process and soon became an “active” adoptive family in waiting.

That of course was only the beginning, and though we initially had a number of heartaches and disappointments, our resolve to adopt grew stronger. We were sure that we would eventually be blessed though the wait for the “perfect” match seemed unending at times.

In short all of our dreams have finally come true, and we feel that this is due in no small part to the wonderful work of the entire American Adoptions organization. Though we know that Craig is no longer with you, he was certainly instrumental in getting us through the initial process some four years ago now. Elizabeth Falke provided first rate and professional support every time we had occasion to deal with her. Scott, who became our family counselor after Craig, navigated us through some difficult decisions. Laurie Egbarts, who though we would deny that we needed counseling, did in fact counsel us through some difficult and emotional moments just a few short months ago. Megan Spaeth has been just the ideal catalyst to our recent case in North Dakota where she dealt perfectly on every occasion with birth parents, attorneys, the local Fargo agency, to say nothing of both of us. Laurie Walker is an absolute gem who was not only perfect in every way through the adoption of Matthew, but was also wonderful in helping us through some trying times more recently.

It has been a long process for us but we feel truly blessed. Both of our children had wonderful birth parents that cared deeply for them and it was truly a pleasure meeting them, albeit under such circumstances. We would never have imagined what an incredible experience this entire process would be. It may have been longer and more trying that we had thought it would be, but we are finding the rewards far greater than we had anticipated, and we have American Adoptions to thank for that entirely. May God bless you all and the wonderful work that you do. We can only hope to live up to the challenge of parenting two such wonderful children as you have helped bring to us. We could never thank you enough.

Simon and Gloria