SUCCESS STORIES

It is with a very grateful heart that I write this. We are Joe and Kourtney, and if you have been with Everlasting for any length of time and are as nosy as we are, you have most likely read our profile. Like us you would have gone through and read most of the profiles to see what all the different families are like, and then get worried that no one will ever pick you over all these other amazing families! Like us you may go back and forth on whether going with Everlasting Adoptions was the “best” choice for you and worry that this couldn’t possibly work. You may read comments on Facebook or Internet and wonder, “Is this the real deal?” We did all this and more, and to be honest, all of it was our fear taking over. When you want something so badly and your heart just aches with it, you allow so many doubts to come in. When you are talking about the life of a child, it can be absolutely overwhelming emotionally. Coming into Everlasting, we already had three children; two of them biological, and the third, adopted. We had never been with any type of agency before and really didn’t know what to expect. A friend of ours had seen Everlasting Adoptions online and mentioned them to us. So one night, Kourtney filled out an application, and within a day we got a phone call from Everlasting. Our experience with Everlasting, from the very beginning was definitely positive and something that we would repeat and also encourage friends and family to go through if they were looking to adopt. We felt that from day one they were very honest and transparent with us, even telling us that because of our already having children it may take longer to find a match. We have been very satisfied and grateful for everything they have done for us. Every email I wrote was promptly replied to (and I wrote often!), every picture I asked to be put on or taken off of their website was done quickly (again A LOT). If I called them, they answered or called right back. We are so thankful for everything they have done. When we finally made our match (after 18 months) they helped us find lawyers and helped us figure out the next steps. They even helped us in the very first steps of connecting with the birth mom when we were unsure how to proceed. We now have our sweet little Mikaiah Jude and are so in love with him. He is now five weeks old, and already we can’t imagine life without him. He puts a smile on everyone’s face (even in the early morning hours when he’s hungry and we are exhausted). Life is crazy, unpredictable, noisy and a lot more unorganized, but we wouldn’t trade it for anything. I think if we can say anything to you, it would be to stay the course and don’t allow doubt to get in the way of what you already know is the right thing for your family. You will go crazy with waiting, your patience will be tested, you will think time is standing still, but in the end you will have a precious and VERY loved baby in your arms for life and every minute of the past months/years will be worth it.

Adoption was something that Bill and I had always talked about. We talked about adoption before we even had decided to start a family. We really felt that it was an incredible opportunity to love a child in the way, we believe, God loves us. We had a difficult time getting pregnant with our first son and ended up using fertility treatments. After having Boden, our oldest, we made the decision that adoption would be the way we built our family. We began the process and were a “waiting family” for two months when we found out we were pregnant. We then put the adoption on hold and restarted the process at the end December 2015. We continued to feel called to adopt a baby as a way to love the child and birth parents in a way that is radical and selfless.

After restarting the adoption after having our second son, Jack, our adoption took about 3 months. We restarted on December 24, 2015 and were called on April 4, 2016. The wait was nothing like we had expected. We expected to wait at least a year and were floored when I received the call about our little girl only 3 months into the process.

Because our process was a little unconventional, having to put it on hold for a time, we had a lot of contact with Carol and the staff. I would say that our “rock” through the process was Carol. We had positive experiences with all of the staff, but Carol was the one who helped us to feel most cared for and made the process feel very personalized.

For those parents who are waiting, we remember those months. The most cliche response I’d have would be, it’ll happen when you least expect it. In our case I’d also say, be ready for it to happen fast. We thought we’d have time to prepare, but we were notified by Carol about Mila, two days before she was due. During our season of waiting we prayed a lot. We prayed for our birth parents and for our unborn baby. We didn’t know when it would be, but we knew that God had already chosen our child for us. We knew that there wasn’t anything we could do to make it go faster or slow down, when God ordained for our daughter to come into our family, it would happen…and it would be perfect. Our other advice would be to those of you who have children already. We would encourage you to be talking to your children about it now. Prepare their hearts to be a big brother or sister. Help them to understand adoption and why you want to build your family this way. Also, allow people into your lives to be a part of your journey. It can be painful and its emotional, but we had such a supportive community around us praying fervently, that we felt cared for regardless of the outcome of our situation. If you are called to adopt, your baby is coming. It will be the perfect baby, at the perfect time, through a perfect story.

Our experience was phenomenal. The beginning of the process was tedious and felt long, but it was worth every penny. Everlasting’s staff was wonderful and went above and beyond to be sure we were pleased with everything from our profile book, to the website, to our monthly updates, and more. When the rubber hit the road and we matched with Jenn, Carol was our backbone and guide through the process. It all went very quickly but there wasn’t a time, day or night, where Carol was not available to us. She was texting Jenn at all hours of the day and diligently worked to keep communication open between Jenn, us, and our lawyer. Carol’s passion for adoption and for families is incredible, and it made us feel very cared for and special. When I hear of other folks who want to adopt, I tell them Everlasting is the only way to go. We couldn’t have gotten through that emotional week without Carol’s support. We are so thankful to her for her guidance and heartfelt interactions!

When we think about our experience and look at our beautiful daughter, we are reminded how blessed we are. When I stare at Mila, I’m often brought to tears with her beauty and the responsibility and gift I’ve been given to love her for the rest of her life. We didn’t know how our adoption story would be written, but Mila’s story is so much more beautiful than we ever could have imagined. Not only do we have her as a part of our family, but we have another new family member, Jenn, her birthmom. I love Jenn in a way that I never knew was possible and look forward to what our open adoption will look like for years to come. Adoption is a difficult decision for the birth parents, and we don’t take that lightly. So as we move forward, we are so excited to care for Jenn as a part of our family as well. Thank you for helping us to be parents again Everlasting Adoptions. Special thank you to Carol as well for loving us as family throughout it all.

Tiffini and I consider us very fortunate to have been able to work with Everlasting Adoptions. We researched many options and companies and chose Everlasting because we felt they were the best fit for us. The staff at Everlasting did everything they promised they would do. From the development of our adoption profile to congratulations and well wishing after we brought Gabriel home, Everlasting Adoptions were by our side. Throughout the process, they answered our questions and supported us when we became anxious while waiting. When they called us in August with a potential birth mother, our hearts stopped and our lives would never be the same. They immediately went to work on the second phase of the process, working with us and the birth mother in preparation of the birth and adaption. Contact with Everlasting has not stopped after our adoption journey was over. We still get emails from Carol asking how things are going and checking in on Gabriel and us. As we look back on our adoption journey, we could not have been happier with the end result. The journey was long and doubt entered our minds on many occasions, but the process proved true and we could not have asked for a more perfect ending. We truly believe that Gabriel was intended to be with us, and Everlasting Adoptions made that happen. Jess and Tiffini

Thanksgiving is fast approaching, which marks 6 wonderful months that we have had our son, Malcolm. We are constantly reminded that we have so much to be grateful for. Our lives will forever be changed.

We first came to Everlasting Adoptions through the internet. We were in a strange place because we had originally started the adoption process through the state. However we soon realized that fostering, though it is beneficial for some couples, was not something we felt that we could do. Of course this realization came after weeks and weeks of adoption training through the state. Discovering Everlasting Adoptions through the web, comes after exploring another agency. We took a chance and reached out to them.

Immediately, Sheila contated us. She was thorough and timely and informative. She told us that Carol would contact us for an hour consult over the phone. Carol called us at the scheduled time frame, and our whole world of understanding opened up. We felt so uplifted, at ease, and informed. We appreciated that she took her time in answering all of our questions. We were so amazed that we couldn’t believe we could feel so comfortable, and the meeting was over the phone. We were sold immediately. At that point, we had no doubts.

Little did we know that we would soon meet another special individual, Ceal. After Sheila and Brittany lead us through the process of creating our profile, we were then introduced to Ceal who made sure that we understood the process of how the birth parents would reach out to us. She was so patient with us. Not only did she inform us when we were chosen, she stayed with us and advised us through the whole process as we connected with the Birth Mom.

The exciting news of us being chosen comes on the tail end of recently discovering that we were pregnant and then miscarrying shortly thereafter. Hearing Ceal’s calming voice over the phone gave us such peace and kept us calm. We talked with the birth Mom from January to May, when she was due. Ceal was extremely instrumental in helping us to form a strong bond with our birth mom. Turns out that we were blessed with a beautiful baby boy around the date that we were originally scheduled to give birth!

We praise God for all the wonderful staff at Everlasting Adoptions, and a special love and acknowledgement goes out to our birth mom for making the hard decision and choosing us to recieve such a beautiful, healthy, son. We will be forever connected with her and family, and those at Everlasting Adoptions who walked with us through this process. We give so much praise to God for blessing us with such special people that gave us a healthy bundle that has added so much joy to our family.

Thanks again,

Stacey and Vic

In February of 2014, we officially began pursuing private, domestic adoption. We were told that we would never conceive, but in 2010, we were blessed with a beautiful, biological daughter. Knowing that the chances of having another child was extremely slim because of my medical condition, we chose to look into adoption.

We found Everlasting Adoptions on the internet, and after interviewing them on the phone, we knew right away that they were the agency we wanted to use. We based our decision on the facts that they were small, very personable, adoptive parents themselves and they were just very caring.

After beginning the process, it took about 14 months to connect with a birth mom and 19 months until the our beautiful baby was in our arms.

Everlasting Adoptions was Always available. I remember calling one time, and Carol answered the phone when she was on vacation. Another time I called, and she was at a family outing. Cherise put together the most amazing brochure for us! We just can’t say enough about this company! We love you all!!

Our advice to prospective parents would be:

1. Choose Everlasting Adoptions first and foremost

2. Don’t rush on the paperwork from the home study agency, as it can be overwhelming. Don’t try to do it all at once.

3. Be Patient; enjoy life in the present!

We are the proud parents of two children now! Wow has life changed!! This whole process was amazing! Thank you everyone who helped our dream to come true!!

Thank you Everlasting Adoptions; we will forever be grateful!!

Avril and Matt

As we sit here in our home, with our beautiful newborn baby girl happily cooing in our arms, we are simply overwhelmed with gratitude and joy. It’s been like this ever since we brought her home from the hospital two weeks ago. When she occasionally cries to tell us she is hungry or needs a fresh diaper, she smiles. When she stretches and strains with regular digestive processes, she smiles. Oftentimes, when she is in the midst of deep deep sleep, she smiles. Basically, she is always smiling – and so are we.

Early on in our adoption quest, when we had our first home study visit, the gentleman who did it told us “if you really truly want to adopt a baby, you will adopt a baby”. He went on to tell us that, like with anything that anyone wants, we just needed to entirely commit ourselves to making this dream become a reality. Since that initial visit, we did completely commit every aspect of ourselves to the quest, and he was right, we have now adopted our baby, wow.

The biggest commitment that we made in order to get connected to the most amazing birthmother we could have ever dreamed up was contracting with Everlasting Adoptions. For us, we know this was by far the best decision we made. When we had our first couple of conversations with Carol Shepherd, she emphasized that if we’d see it through, we’d have the best chances of a connection and ultimately an adoption. To us, what this meant was that we needed to be patient, give them the entire 24 months to try to work for us and for our goal of adopting, and not to ‘rush’ such an important thing in any kind of way. Although our official waiting time is listed as 36 months, we really feel that it was more a 24 month waiting period, as we were somewhat slow to get our home study and profile materials done. Lucky for us, Everlasting Adoptions allowed us to extend our contract, until we got the connection of our dreams. We also had another connection, from which we learned so much and are grateful to have had. I joked with Carol at one point that we would probably be their longest ever waiting couple, but now when I look at it, I think we actually are. Our baby girl is way more than worth any waiting time…it gave us a chance to be fully prepared and to entirely enjoy every moment we have been blessed to have with her already…since getting this connection, nothing has been rushed, or stressed, or difficult…quite the opposite…it has unfolded more beautifully than anything else in our lives ever has.

To close, we’d like to wish any readers who are trying to adopt the very best of fortune. We give Everlasting Adoptions all the credit for our adoption success, knowing they really were the only logical option for us. We hope you can feel the same as soon as it is “meant to be” for you … whether it is just a day or week away for you, or an entire 35 more months, it will be the best thing ever. Good luck!

Our adoption story started many many years ago when we both knew we could never conceive on our own. After several surgeries and then a hysterectomy by age 30, we knew that adoption was the only way we would be able to have a baby. Before we signed on with Everlasting Adoptions, we were foster parents and blessed with the opportunity to adopt our two sons, who are now 10 and 8. We wanted more than anything to have a little girl and our sons wanted a little sister, so we did a lot of research and took a chance with Everlasting.

I will be honest; the process took a lot longer than I thought, over two years. It was stressful and made us anxious at times, but now that Desirae is here, it’s so hard to remember that it took so long or was stressful. She was so worth the wait! The connection we have with our birth mother is amazing! We are just a few hours from each other so we were able to attend sonogram appointments and even weekly Dr’s appointments. After meeting and connecting with our birth mother, we never gave the length of time we waited a second thought!

The process at Everlasting was easy. Shelia was extremely helpful anytime we had a question regarding our profile or needed a change and Ceal, bless her heart, has the most patience of anyone I have ever met! Carol was also extremely helpful with our match and made sure we had a smooth connection with our birth mother and helped answer a dozen or more questions we had. When they say they are there for you at all hours, they mean it!

Our advice to waiting families: The wait may seem long, and it can be at times, just breath. You just haven’t met the right birth mother yet. You’ll know when you do!

Desirae is 6 weeks old and just beautiful! She is just perfect! Our boys absolutely adore their baby sister and she is already the center of their universe 🙂

Jamie & Chris

Dear Ceal and Everlasting Adoptions,

Brant and I are so thankful for you and everything that you have done for our family. We started planning for a family right after our wedding in 2008. After six years of trying to get pregnant and watching as everyone else was able to start their own families. We longed to have a family. We decided in April of 2014 to start our adoption journey. We researched our options and that is when we found Everlasting Adoptions.

When we started out we were very well aware that adoption has its ups and downs. No matter how educated you are, it is still hard. Waiting became very trying. I was thankful for all of the support given by Sheila and taking my calls wondering why we had not been chosen. She listened to me and was always very supportive. After 10 months of waiting we received “the call”. I will never forget the day Ceal called me to tell me that we had been chosen by a family to adopt their baby. It was February 25th, 2015. We didn’t have much information only that we did not know the gender and that baby was due March 4th, 2015. Our life started a whirl wind of planning and preparing. We decided to fly to Las Vegas to be closer to Arizona when the baby was born. It was a few days before we heard from our Birthmother and were starting to think that it was a failed match. We had even decided to leave Las Vegas and go to California to visit family before coming home. However, on our way to California about 20 minutes out side of Vegas on March 5th I received the best email ever. It was from Lisa our birthmother telling us she couldn’t wait to get to know us. We turned around and back to Las Vegas we went. We emailed back and forth all day. We had decided that we would travel to Phoenix the next day to meet the family that wanted us to parent their child. We were so nervous and excited to meet them. The next morning I emailed Lisa back to ask about what time she and her family wanted to meet and that is when she told us she was in labor. We left for Arizona right away.

During our trip Lisa had contacted Ceal to set up a birth plan, she asked us to be in the delivery room with her. We couldn’t believe it! We had only emailed with her and she was inviting us into the most personal experience. We finally got to meet Lisa, her husband Cory at the hospital along with her daughter and son. We spent all night with them. I was able to hold her hand and talk her through contractions. We bonded immediately, we got to know each other very quickly. They told us why they chose us, to my disbelief the reasons why they chose were the reasons I was worrying that we weren’t getting chosen. During that night we were able to spend time together and it was great.

At 2:46 am our daughter was born, we were there to welcome her into this world with Lisa. It was amazing! When the nurses asked what her name was Lisa told me “she is your daughter you name her”. We chose the name Sara Elizabeth after both of my sisters. We were able to hold her right away, I had the most amazing experience of handing Sara to her Birthmother for the first time. We brought our sweet Sara home about ten days after she was born. She has filled the hole in our hears. We know that God knew Sara was meant to be our daughter. She is perfect and we love her very much. Prior to meeting Lisa and her family we wanted only limited contact with the birth family. We changed our minds and we have a great relationship with all of them. We are blessed with such a great family that has given us such an amazing gift. We adopted in 10 short months, it was hard but worth every second. We love our experiences with Everlasting Adoptions and would recommend them to anyone wanting to expand their family with adoption.

Thank you,

Brant, Heidi and Sara

We always wanted to adopt and after years of failed infertility we decided it was time 🙂 Our lives are now complete!!

We started everything in November of 2014, connected with the birth mother on May 12th and had a baby on May 29th!! We adopted in 6 months! The process can feel scary and like an eternity, but the end is so worth it. Did not think we would be ones who would adopt so quickly, but we got the call that she was due and chose us and we just said yes, whatever it takes 🙂 What a blessing!

Sheila and Ceal helped direct us to the resources we needed for the different steps of the process along the way to keep things moving smoothly. From day 1 everybody was very responsive and helpful and it was obvious that they take a personal interest in their clients. I cried with Ceal, she prayed for me 🙂 It’s a much more beautiful connection with Everlasting Adoptions than I would imagine it would be with any other agency. To the very end Ceal kept up with what was going on with me and shared in my joy when we adopted our baby girl!!

It seems at times like this will never happen and honestly that was the way I felt about it as well off and on. What an emotional roller coaster. But now, every disappointment, every heart break, every frustration we’ve ever felt and endured no longer matters <3 We have a beautiful baby girl, Atalie LeAnn, and we couldn’t be happier! It can happen for anyone!!

I’d give them a 9 out of 10. In the beginning we had some issues with getting our home study to them and miscommunication from that, but immediately after that resolved the rest of our experience was great!! Ceal connected us to someone she felt would be a great fit, even though some of our requirements/wishes didn’t match. Thank God she did and we were flexible or we wouldn’t be parents yet. 🙂 They are GREAT at what they do.

We have had so much pain and heart ache along the way, had we gone with anyone else I can’t imagine if they could have come close to the compassion that Everlasting Adoptions staff has shown. The fact that they are a smaller organization and only take so many people at a time shows they are committed to those they help with adoption. I also learned so much by completing some of the steps ourselves along the way and feel like we are better for it! When we adopt again in the future, we will definitely go through Everlasting!

When we decided that we would try adoption again I was extremely scared. There was so many things that could happen. I didn’t care how we started our family I just wanted a family. I wanted a baby. I had prayed and prayed that God would allow us to be parents. I knew in my heart that I would but I was scared I wouldn’t be. James always had faith and was amazing throughout the whole thing. I had a hard time with my faith because I didn’t know why…

On November 15, 2013, we signed up with Everlasting adoptions. I had met a friend at my school whom had used them to get connected with their birthmom. They were connected within weeks. Of course, when something like that happens to someone else you think maybe that would happen to you. James and I had our first interview with them and they decided that they would like for us to be a part of their waiting parents. So we started our wait.. I am not a patient person so all of this waiting was hard on me and my attitude. I got more and more bitter ever minute that passed by. James kept me in line and helped me through my craziness. We decided to go on a vacation over New Year’s to start off our New Year with a fresh start. Boy it was a fresh start. In June of 2014 we got “THE CALL”. I was standing by the stairs in our home when I looked down at my phone that said please check your email and call me asap. I ran to the computer to check to see what it said. It said we had a birthmom that was interested in us and wanted to start talking. OMG.. I called James right away. He was so excited. I was too but I was in shock.. I didn’t think it would happen for at least a couple of years. As soon as we read it I called Everlasting back and let them know we were interested. They gave me the Birthmom’s number and we immediately started texting. She was so sweet and was not what I was expecting. I had to tell her that I was pregnant and I was scared that she was going to not want us to be her babies parents. We had just prayed so hard for a baby and now we were possibly going to have two! So, I was at the movies with my school friends and was texting through the movie.. I know not good but I needed to know everything. I told her no matter what we would love her baby more than she could ever know and that even though I was pregnant with a biological child he or she would not be any different in our hearts. He/She would be ours and we would love him or her so much. She decided to pick us and we were so happy. The whole 8 months we talked back and forth via text and my mom and I went up to Arizona to meet her and her family. They were wonderful.

As the date got closer and closer, I became really worried about how it was all going to play out. I was literally giving myself hives because I was so nervous we wouldn’t make it to his birth. I had played every different scenario in my head and we had finally decided that we would drive to AZ and then we would stay in a hotel for however long we would need to, with Jaxon with us. I didn’t think I could be away from Jaxon that long. Then I thought I would see if anyone knew of anyone in AZ that we could stay with. So, I put on Facebook to see if anyone knew of anyone. It just so happened that one of my former students did know of someone. So, I spoke with Larry that night and he told me sure to come on down. He was a pastor from the town we were going to. Then my uncle got us a plane ticket because the new plan was for me to fly there and then James would just meet me there in the car. My mom would keep Jaxon. Everything was just falling into place. It was crazy because every night I was just praying like crazy that God would take this burden from me and help me not to worry about all the stuff and how we were going to get there . Our birth mom had told us she was feeling a little bit different so I knew it would be anyday. I really didn’t want it to be on Christmas because I wanted him to have his own day. Plus we didn’t want to have to worry about all the Holiday traffic.

It was NYE and James and I had gone to dinner with my dad for his birthday and then had decided to hang out for a little bit over at my parents house. Around 9 o’clock we decided to go home and watch a movie. We made it about 10 minutes into that movie and fell right to sleep. At around 1:50, I get a phone call from our birth mom asking if I had received her text, which I had not. I was still so groggy from sleeping and kind of out of it. I jumped out of bed before she even told me what was going on. She said that thought she was in labor and that she would let me know. She was walking around outside and started having contractions so her grandma took her to the hospital and she was 4cm. So, we started packing up everything. I called my mom and told her to get over here because she was going to get Jaxon. My dad had to stay with Jaxon and my mom took James and I to the airport at 3:30 in the morning. The whole time praying like crazy that we would be able to get there in time for his birth. We jumped on the plane and got to AZ at 8:00 and she was at 8 cm, We figured it would be any time. The car rental place was taking forever so I told them.. UMM our birth mom is in labor and about to have our baby.. do you think you could hurry? He then hurried and got someone over so we could get to our baby. As soon as we got to the hospital we found our Birth moms room and met her family. She was still in labor and our little Landon wasn’t here yet. He waited to arrive when he wanted to. STINKER.. he wasn’t born until 2:15. He was perfect and I got to cut the cord. It was so cool being on the other side of things. They put Landon on his birth mom for a little bit so she could see him and then they took him to be weighed. They let me give him his bath and they checked him out. He was perfect with a full head of read hair. Looking back at this day we know God was with us in ever aspect of this journey. We got to have our own room with him to bond and get to know our little boy. The attorney said that this hospital was not adoption friendly so we were very worried. Well we had the most amazing nurses. They helped out so much, when it was time for us to take him home, our baby nurse had everything ready so that when the attorney got there all we had to do was sign off. It was like so easy. She even said I have never seen this go so well. Our birthmom walked out with us and we headed to the place where we were staying, The people we were staying with ended up being the nicest people you could have ever imagined. They were amazing. They adopted Landon as their Grandson since they only have granddaughters. 5 days later we got the call that we were good to go home. It was awesome because they had told us it would take two weeks and it took 5 days!!!! God was with us in every aspect of our journey. I know this was Gods plans all along.