Domestic Adoption - Designated/Identified Adoption Program

Designated Adoption Stories

Our Gift From God...

Nina Grace joined our family Dec. 31 2004. What a New Year’s gift! My husband and I feel so blessed that we were able to start our new life through the designated interstate open adoption program at LSS. It was a journey we never could have imagined.

After making our decision to adopt we attended an informational meeting at LSS. We were given a thick application and were asked to sign up for pre adoption classes. After looking at the lengthy application, we decided to take some time to think and pray about our options. Ten months later we finally decided to pursue international adoption and registered for our first class. We started to feel more comfortable with the process and the timeline seemed manageable. We started to get really excited about the possibilities! Little did we know that God had different plans for us.

On Thanksgiving weekend, we got an email from a friend who lives in South Dakota. Things start to get a little crazy, so bear with us here…our friend’s mom’s coworker was at a basketball game where she met Nina and her grandmother. They had a conversation, which led to a discussion about Nina, her birth mom and Nina’s future. Our friend’s mom and her coworker happen to work at a crisis pregnancy center, so she asked if adoption had been considered. She offered her name and number to her and told her to call if she thought adoption would be the best thing for Nina. She called about a week later and shortly after we received the email that changed our lives. We called the number and spoke with Nina’s grandmother. The connection was immediate and we scheduled to meet the very next weekend.

God had worked things out. We were to become parents, but what next? Our LSS meeting was scheduled for the end of January and it was only November. We did not have a social worker and had not even finished our application. We were extremely confused about the process at this point, so we called LSS for help. This is where a worker from the LSS Infant and Open Adoption Program, stepped in and began to work their magic! The LSS worker consulted with us, calmed us and helped us understand what we needed to do. They walked us through the process, step by step, giving us projects to complete along the way. With our newly found motivation, we finished our applications, our home study was completed and our background checks were on file waiting to be cleared. All this in less than two weeks!

We got the call to travel two weeks later, and on December 31st we found ourselves at a lawyer’s office in Sioux City Iowa waiting for our daughter to arrive. We were overjoyed and humbled at the same time, feeling honored to be on the receiving end of such an incredible gift. We spent the next two weeks at the Sioux City Ronald McDonald House with Nina, not knowing when we could come home to Minnesota. The anticipation of going home to start our new life was tremendous and growing by the hour. Would we ever get to go home? We also felt very vulnerable during this time because our adoption was subject to legal risk until the paperwork was completed. We knew that it was a very difficult decision for Nina’s birth family and we could only hope and pray that they would complete the process. We were quite nervous and we called our LSS worker everyday, if not twice a day. She was so calm and always helped us to remember to keep the focus on Nina and her best interests.

Within about two weeks the legal work was completed and sent to Iowa ICPC for approval. Everything looked good until a snowstorm delayed the process. Being from Minnesota, we did not even realize there was a snowstorm. Apparently three inches of snow caused major delays and our paperwork had been misplaced in Iowa! We wanted to go home so badly and eventually the information was found. We were finally allowed to go home with our new family in tact. Although it was difficult at the time, our experience waiting to clear the ICPC was a perfect chance to spend time together as a family. We were blessed to have a wonderful place to get to know our new daughter.

Our experience with interstate designated open adoption was not typical. It was a gift. We may have expected it to be different but feel so blessed with the outcome. Looking back we would not wish for anything to be different. We own our experience and have an amazing story to tell. We have a little gift from God, Nina Grace. We are so thankful.

By Sue and Matt