Personal Adoption Story

Our journey to Autumn Praise Sullens started several years ago.  God had blessed us with two beautiful boys and I really thought I felt complete.  Boy, or should I say, girl, was I wrong!  My husband and I began praying for orphans on a regular basis after receiving mail that gave data on the number of orphans around the world.  About a year later, we were starting the process to adopt from China!  We live in GA so naturally we called several agencies here and never felt a real connection.  One night, I searched the web and found an agency that had a pay as you go policy with different levels of help in each step - I needed ALL the help I could get.  I began saving every penny - I would just like to apologize to my family for the numerous 50 cent chicken pot pies. So, the next day, Todd and I called Americans Adopting Orphans.  I first talked to co-director Cindy that afternoon and then Todd talked to co-director Dave that evening for a whole hour!  I was folding clothes while Todd was talking, but believe me, I was multi tasking - I was hanging on every word Todd was saying.  The last words he said were "Dave, we do not want to waste anymore time, how do we start?"  I was jumping up and down!!!  We were on our way and I was falling in love with a baby that I knew nothing about.  

We went through all of the steps with the full support of AAO.  I remember calling Dave one day and asking him just shy of 100 questions.  I remember calling Ed one day to ask him to re-assure me that people who are not millionaires can really adopt.  I remember calling Cindy several times for pep talks during the waiting process - she has a way of making me laugh.  I got very close to Jennifer - I cried when she called to say our dossier was ready to fly to China.  It was my birthday present that year!  I remember Amy calling to reassure me that our plane reservations had not been cancelled and I will never forget Richard in China guiding us all the way to our precious girl.