“Without adoption, I wouldn’t be where I am. I probably wouldn’t even be here today.”
       - Ted, adoptive father

A countless number of people feel exactly the same way as Ted. They feel life is meaningless without the gift of becoming a parent.

For that reason, thousands of people every year choose to adopt a child. And like Ted, without adoption, many of these people would be lost; their lives would be unfulfilled because of infertility.

Infertility is normally the impetus to adoption. Once it becomes more and more a part of a couple’s life, and after the husband sees what the fertility treatments are doing to his wife physically and emotionally, both eventually come to the conclusion that their dreams are to become parents, not to become pregnant. They also realize that adoption provides everything that a pregnancy does: a newborn baby full of life with a future that stretches farther than they can possibly imagine.

Those two reasons are essentially why people turn to adoption. They realize raising a child and sharing their lives together is what they want, and whether that is through pregnancy or adoption, it doesn’t matter. The important thing is that their family is whole, and their lives from that day forward will be forever connected.

Life offers so many memorable moments that sometimes it is hard to realize how special they are without a child there to remind us. The joy a father sees in his son’s eyes when he attends his first baseball game, or the excitement he sees on his daughter’s face the first time she sees the top of a cloud from an airplane window – these are moments made special exponentially because of the presence of a child.

And that’s why people like Ted who remember the great times they had as kids want to pass those vivid memories along to their children. Camping and fishing trips, soccer games, boy scouts functions, visits to the zoo, memorable vacations and trips to grandma’s are all memories adults have of growing up with their own parents. They want to relive those good times with their children, and they won’t let infertility keep them from achieving those dreams.

So, why do couples adopt? Because every night the two hopeful parents go to bed wishing there was a child in the adjacent room to read to and tuck into bed before giving him a kiss goodnight. Because every day at work the hopeful parents sigh and think to themselves, “There has to be more to life than this.” Simply put, people adopt because their families feel empty and will remain empty until that void is filled by a child.

Adoption has given and will continue to give people like Ted the opportunity to be parents, and the opportunity to continue to lead fulfilling lives.