Adoption Network Law Center

10-Mar-14
Marci D

Dear ANLC
I know it’s taken a little longer to write this

letter than we had anticipated. We have been busy

loving every minute of being parents to our newest

addition, Connor. As I write this now, it’s hard to

put into words how grateful we are to ANLC and

everything you and the rest of the staff did to

make our dream come true.
Our first call with Jennifer was on 4-27-11 and at

that time we were excited and nervous about

everything that lay ahead of us. The questionnaires

seemed daunting but Jennifer was there to assist

with any questions we had. We were connected to an

adoption agency in Dallas, Little Flower, and they

were wonderful as well. Once we had completed our

background check, we submitted all of our photos

and documents to ANLC’s Marketing Department so

they could put our websites together. We were

relieved once we were notified over Labor Day

weekend that our websites were up! Now the real

waiting began.
On Halloween, we received a call from Cynthia that

a birth mother had chosen us! Cynthia set up a call

between all of us so we could meet her over the

phone. After that, the birth mother and I spoke

every week until Connor was born. We were able to

meet the birth mom at the hospital after she gave

birth and spent a lot of time with her over the

next few days until she and Connor were discharged.

Upon discharge, we were able to take Connor with

us. The interstate adoption process only took 3

days and we were back in Dallas within 2 weeks.
I have to admit, we were skeptical about the

process of adoption and how long it would take.

However, working with ANLC exceeded our

expectations. I had several conversations with

Cynthia right before and after Connor was born as

that seemed to be the most stressful time.

Everything worked out perfectly! It is such a

relief that we have our little miracle with us.
I would highly recommend ANLC to adoptive parents.

Their staff is very knowledgeable and caring. It

took a total of 9 months from our first phone call

to when we had Connor in our arms. We are truly

grateful and blessed.
Thank you!
Marci & Mark

05-Mar-14
Jill S

This was one of the most emotional and

exhilarating experiences of our lives and ANLC was

there every step of the way!

We contacted ANLC 2 years ago while living in the

United Kingdom and looking to begin our family.

Everyone we spoke with provided us with all the

information we needed and answers to all of our

questions - believe us - there were plenty of

them! We were guided through the paperwork and

provided with every support mechanism we could

possibly require. Aside from scouring our pictures

from the prior two years - and improvising a few

winter shots in the middle of the summer - the

paperwork was relatively straight forward. Much to

our surprise, three weeks after having our on-line

profiles go live, we were contacted by ANLC saying

that we had been selected. Our first tear filled

call, learning more about the birthmother and

expectant child, gave us our first step in our

long - awaited process of starting our family. The

one surprise - the due date was 6 weeks away!!!!

Here we are now, 19 months later beginning the

process yet again for our second adoption with

ANLC in hopes of adopting a brother or sister for

Madisen. This was one of the most emotional and

exhilarating experiences of our lives and ANLC was

there every step of the way! We can't wait to go

through it with them again.

Jim and Jill

17-Feb-14
Loretta E. Lynch L

God had blessed us with two boys and we were so very happy. However, we felt that we were supposed to have more children. Since I have systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the doctors discouraged another pregnancy. We had always thought about adoption when we first got married because we were not sure if we could ever have children … We began talking about it in early 2009 when we agreed with the doctors to not attempt another pregnancy. We just weren’t sure what God’s plan was for our family, and we both agreed to pray about it.
…
I began looking around at our options for an adoption agency. During my searches, I ran across ANCL no matter what I typed in regarding adoption. Once I looked at their sites and learned that they market the adopting parents, I knew our site would be seen often as their internet marketing is spectacular. I also loved the fact that the birth mom actually got to choose the adopting parents by looking at the profiles online. What an amazing decision these young ladies are making and to have a choice of who raises her child is wonderful. I requested an adoption kit and we prayed about this opportunity for our family.
…
This part of the process is where the WORK comes in. The paperwork for the home study and getting the information together for our website took some time. I was very nervous about putting the right information together for the website, but ANLC made it very easy. The Media Services Coordinator, stepped us through the entire process. She would tell us if they needed more of a certain type of picture so that website would be the best it could be for our family. I wanted to make sure the boys were included too, and ANLC helped us determine how to do that. I was so excited the first time I saw our website live; it finally felt real.
…
…
Then, on March 1, 2011 our waiting was over. Our adoption advisor called us with our second adoption opportunity. As she began, she said that the birth mom’s name was Kaleigh. I gasped, rather loudly I suppose, because our advisor asked me if that was a problem. I knew at that point, that this was the baby God had intended for our family. I jotted down notes as she spoke, shaking the entire time. I could not stop the smile from spreading across my face as I contemplated the reality that our daughter would be arriving in June. Our advisor was fabulous, another person at ANLC helping us every step of the way.
…
We began the work with the attorneys, started looking at hotel options and identifying flight schedules in order to be prepared for the “big day”. Well, that was a joke. When we got the call on June 3 at around 11 PM from Kaleigh’s father, my heart jumped out of chest, the boys began to scream and cry tears of joy, and my husband looked like he was going to be sick. I tried to remain calm and schedule the flights and hotels that I had mapped out. In my haste, I booked the flight for the next evening at 6 PM rather than the morning at 6 AM. Luckily, the agent had pity me on me and helped me fix it when I called.
…
The hospital had a room set up for us, so I stayed at the hospital and kept Kayleigh in the room with me. Brad and the boys went to the hotel to try and get some sleep. It had surely been a long 24 hours since we got the call from Kaleigh’s dad. All of the nurses were so nice. I just could not believe how wonderful things were going. I kept thanking God for all the amazing blessings. The boys and Brad came to visit the next day and I also spent time in Kaleigh’s room meeting some more of her friends and family. It was that day that we all agreed that it would be a good idea for Kaleigh’s friends and family to join Kayleigh’s Facebook page. I had set up an account under her name to keep our friends and family updated as the due date grew close; that was much easier than answering a million emails from each person. However, we agreed it was the perfect way to keep her birth family up to date on everything that is going on in Kayleigh’s life and to see pictures of her as she grows. It has really been a great experience to share all of this with a family that loves Kayleigh so much.
The third day, Brad and the boys had to fly home because our youngest son had his final baseball tournament of the season, the Tournament of Champions. The intention was for Brad to stay home and then come back up when it was time for us to take Kayleigh home. That didn’t work out just exactly as planned. I don’t think Kayleigh slept at all that evening until she finally wore herself out about 3 AM the next morning. I realized I had not slept more than an hour at a time in about four nights, and the lack of sleep was taking a toll on me. By 2 AM, I had Brad on the phone begging him to come back up and help me….
Brad and I spent the next 12 days getting to know our new addition in the confines of a hotel room... It just happened to be Biker Week … in this town, so we had many bikers around which gave us ample opportunity to show off our new beautiful baby. Kaleigh came by almost every day to see the baby and spend time with her. It was during this time that we really got to know more about Kaleigh and came to love and respect her for the woman she is... On June 17th, father’s day and our 12th anniversary, Kaleigh invited us to her dad’s home to spend time with her family and friends. We spent the majority of the day meeting aunts, cousins, friends, etc. Each and every one of them supported Kaleigh and her decision of adoption. They were all genuinely nice people, and we were so thankful for the opportunity to meet everyone.

13-Feb-14
martha w

GR was brought into our lives on June 11. We already had 4 amazing children, but wanted 1 more!
We called ANCL in March and turned in our paper work the end of April and 6 weeks later we had a beautiful baby boy! ANLC made the process very easy and simple. The staff at ANLC walked us through step by step. Even when we called them about our anxiety and anticipation they were so amazing and would talk to us through it. We are so grateful for ANLC they have made our family complete, he is truly a blessing from God! Thank you ANLC for all you have done for us.

GR’s Family

04-Feb-14
Geoff D

The call came, appropriately enough, in the parking lot of Babies R Us: Our baby girl had been born! She surprised everyone by coming far earlier than predicted. I was at the store checking out car seats since we needed to have one for our home study. The amazing array of choices was bewildering and I walked out thinking, oh well, I have time to decide what to buy... Suddenly that call came in and everything changed - my husband Geoff and I had to leap into action!

When we had our first meeting with our Consultant she gave us a great overview of the process and explained how ANLC would help us. We had talked to other adoption entities and liked how ANLC did things. When we asked that anxious question that everyone must ask, “How long will we have to wait?” Our Consultant told us - with a twinkle in her eye – “Well, I can’t make any promises, but I don’t think you’ll wait very long…” It was a classic case of “be careful what you wish for,” because before we knew it the call came. Within weeks we had been selected by a birth mother in Kentucky, and she was due in less than 3 months. Soon we learned that our birth mother had a complication that meant she would be delivering the baby a month early – and then our already accelerated timeline moved ahead even faster when our little girl decided she was ready to be born, 7 weeks ahead of schedule! This would be our first child after years of infertility so we were ecstatic to be chosen so quickly, but also in a panic because we were in no way ready for a baby. We scrambled to complete our home study and all the application paperwork. Fortunately the agency that ANLC put us in touch with, was great to work with and they helped make sure everything got done on time. The adoption attorney in Kentucky who ANLC connected us with sent another huge set of forms and helped us get the KY documents done (we were still completing forms in the car on the way to the hospital to meet our new daughter!). Eventually the seemingly endless pile of paperwork and the long honey-do list melted away and we were on our way to our dream of becoming parents.

It started off a little scary. With Maddy born 7 weeks early and more than 2,000 miles away we were excited but apprehensive. Was the baby ok? What should we do? Who could help us? ANLC calmly talked us through the process and helped us understand what would/could happen, how others had managed with their premature babies, what to expect and what questions to ask. We felt confident that we were making the right decision to adopt Maddy and made our way to Kentucky right away. While attending to Maddy in the neonatal ICU unit, the ANLC legal team were amazing, helping us get Maddy covered by our health insurance, getting our CA paperwork completed and working with our wonderful attorney in Kentucky. While we concentrated on bonding with our new daughter, the ANLC team was behind us every step of the way making sure everything went smoothly. Our KY and CA paperwork cleared in record time and by the time Maddy was released from the hospital, happy and healthy at only 2 weeks old and just 4 pounds, our paperwork was done and we were ready to go home!

Our CA adoption hearing also came in record time and before we knew it we were in court with an ANLC lawyer calmly talking us through all the steps - she even knew the judge. It all happened so fast. We were the first ones called into the courtroom and before we knew it, we were signed, sealed, and delivered – Maddy was ours! We can’t thank ANLC enough for their expertise, compassion, experience, and guidance throughout the whole process. It was overwhelming and confusing at times and we could not have done it without them. We are now loving every minute with our sweet little girl, she is the light of our lives and we so thankful to ANLC for helping make us a family!

Thanks, Geoff and family