Darin & Stacey
This is for those of you considering the journey of adoption. Darin and I knew we wanted to have children from the moment we met. We started trying to build our family right when we were married. After years of trying, and after every procedure possible, we decided to build our family through the miracle of adoption. I started researching online and requested information from numerous companies. I talked on the phone to 5 different organizations and knew immediately that Everlasting Adoptions was the choice for us! Carol was so warm and explained everything in detail. She went over the joy and hurdles you can experience throughout the process. We were matched within 6 short months, and unfortunately experienced the worst case scenario with our baby girl. After being in our home for a short time, the birthmother changed her mind. We were court ordered to return her. Please understand that is not something that occurs very often at all. Our attorney handling our case said it was the first time in his 25 years of doing adoptions.
We never thought we would be able to try the adoption process again. Luckily our love for each other healed us, and we decided to contact Carol again. She was so amazing! Carol told us she would be thrilled to help us with our journey again. She was so caring and compassionate. We were matched with our next birthmother in only 7 short months. Carol was there for us the entire time. She would email and call often to touch base and make sure everything was going as planned. After being matched, we were blessed to welcome our son Carsen to our family in 4 short months. Carsen is a miracle! We are so thankful to his birthmother for her courage and strength. He brings us so much joy and happiness. Once Carsen joined our family, we were sure he was going to be our only child. I will be honest, the process is stressful, and we did not think we would have the strength to go through it again. When Carsen was almost 2, we decided he should have a sibling to grow up with. This is one of the greatest decisions we ever made! We knew immediately that we would contact Everlasting Adoptions to help us find Carsen a brother or sister.
When we contacted Everlasting Adoptions to sign up, Carol again was amazing! She was thrilled to have us join their family yet one more time! We were surprised to hear Everlasting Adoptions had expanded and added additional staff. I will be honest, I was concerned to deal with someone other than Carol because she had been so compassionate and patient with me. I didn’t know if anyone could measure up. That is when I was introduced to Jenna! Jenna is equally as amazing! In 6 short months we were matched with another birthmother again. This experience was PERFECT. We spoke daily and built a beautiful relationship with one another. Our son was born 4 months after we were matched. Jenna was there every step of the way. She even took my call on a weekend when I was feeling a little nervous about the process. She calmed me, and made me feel wonderful. When our son was born, she called and texted all day to keep us posted and let us know how excited she was. She, too, was AMAZING!
Lucas completes our family. We have two amazing, beautiful, healthy, perfect sons! All of this due to Everlasting Adoptions!
I would recommend them hands down to anyone looking to start the journey of adopting! They have an amazing staff and work very hard to match couples with birthmothers quickly.
Thank you Everlasting Adoptions!!!
Jami & Ryan
Last night Stella bent down close to her new baby sister and whispered, “Scout, when you get older we’re gonna be best buddies.” Ryan and I just looked at each other and about cried. It was one of the sweetest moments in my life. These are the memories that are replacing all of the hurt and sadness that comes with infertility. I look at our two girls and can’t imagine life without them. It was a long broken winding road that brought us to each of them. I will always hold a special place in my heart for Carol and Everlasting Adoptions for guiding us down that road. Not once, but twice!
Kelly & Darren
Everlasting Adoptions was an amazing tool that led us to the daughter we longed for. We contacted Carol about signing up with Everlasting Adoptions, and she was so patient with all our questions and endless phone calls. Through Everlasting Adoptions we were available to birth moms searching for adoptive parents for their babies. Carol was always there for us, guiding and protecting us. Occasionally, adoption agencies would contact Carol asking if any adoptive parents were interested in birth mother scenarios they had available. We decided to answer one of those scenarios which led us to meeting the birth parents of our daughter, Ava. We are thankful that God put Everlasting Adoptions into our path on the journey to our precious baby girl! Our daughter is now 16 months old and is the princess of the family. Her three big brothers spoil her, protect her and love on her; it’s so touching to see how they’ve embraced her! We would recommended Everlasting Adoptions to anyone looking to experience the beautiful journey of adoption.
Blessings,
Darren, Kelly, Ethan, Seth, Aidan and Ava
Traci & Tom
We were considering another treatment, but every time I would get close to making the doctor’s appointment, I would get a pit in my stomach. IVF is a roller coaster ride of emotions, and in our case, it ended in disappointment each time. Once we decided on adoption, I felt relieved and really deeply, it was the right decision for us.
Our process took three and a half years. Yes, it was agonizing at times, but the Everlasting Adoptions staff, especially Carol Shepherd, really helped keep us positive. As Carol is an adoptive parent, she had such compassion, and she never gave up trying to find us the right match.
My advice to other prospective adoptive parents is to not give up! We were literally days away from our Everlasting Adoptions contract expiring when we were matched with our birthmother. The staff at Everlasting Adoptions is not giving up on you so have faith. Lastly, no matter how long it takes, it is very worth the wait. My husband and I feel incredibly blessed to have our daughter and know deep in our hearts that the right child came to us in the right time. Tom and I made the decision to adopt after four failed IVF treatments.
Good Luck to you all on your adoption journey.
Danielle & John
John and I decided to build our family through adoption after many miscarriages and years of fertility treatments. It was always our dream to become parents, and Everlasting Adoptions made that dream come true. After 15 months, we were matched with an unbelievable birth mom. We immediately made a connection with her, and we truly believe it was meant to be. Our son was definitely worth the wait. Carol was always there to share words of encouragement and wisdom. We have been through a lot on our road to becoming a family but never gave up hope. Without hope, there is nothing! Miracles do happen! Our son is such an amazing miracle!! Thanks to Everlasting Adoptions our family is complete!
Tremain & Joy
Our journey with Carol and the Everlasting Adoptions team has been nothing but wonderful. We did a lot of research on adoption agencies before choosing Everlasting Adoptions, and choosing them was one of the best decisions we have ever made. We felt really good about our decision from the start. Carol and Jenna were always just a phone call/email away whenever we needed them. They proved on several occasions to be a lifesaver and the support system we needed at the time we needed it most.
Our baby girl was born on June 8, 2012. We immediately felt a great connection with the birth mother. However, there were some challenges in other areas, and we had to wait a few weeks before we could bring our daughter home. Through the tough time between the birth and bringing our baby home, and really through the entire experience, Carol and Jenna were our angels. They are truly amazing. They put their heart and soul into their work and in helping those who need them. I feel like we have become friends, and that is something we will always treasure.
We are in total bliss with our new little one, and can’t imagine what life would be like without her. We can’t thank Carol and Jenna enough for all their hard work, support and love through this.
Miracles do and still happen. We know this because we have a new little bundle of joy living in our home now. We feel so blessed. Thank you to God for blessing us with a family that we didn’t think we would ever have, thank you to the birth mother for choosing us, and thank you Carol and the Everlasting Adoptions team.
With love and great appreciation.
May God shower you with blessings,
Tremain and Joy
Nikita & Kevin
We decided on Everlasting Adoptions after doing some research on the internet. We already had a failed adoption and some failed fertility treatments, so we were both really skeptical, but after making the decision to go with Everlasting Adoptions and having our first phone conversation with Carol, we were hooked. Carol was so caring and thoughtful. She knew exactly what we were thinking and what our fears were. She was so easy to talk to and always returned our calls and e-mails quickly. The process (although it seemed like a like a life time) was only 9 months from signing up and going “live” with Everlasting until we got the call that our little man was on his way. We were notified by Everlasting Adoptions in April that a birthmother was having a little boy in June, and that we had been matched. From then it was preparing for his arrival and getting to finally do all of that fun baby shopping! The staff was so helpful throughout the whole process and helped us to find the attorney’s and everything we were looking for. I knew that I could call at any time with my questions and concerns, and they would always try their best to help me get through my fears and questions.
I would highly rate Everlasting Adoptions and would recommend that any prospective adoptive parent to give them a call! You will be highly satisfied!
Ruth & Andrew
Our adoption journey to our precious Evelyn Noel was not an easy one, but oh-so-worth it in the end! The process through Everlasting took us about 14 months to be matched and Carol guided us patiently the whole way. Beyond matching us with an amazing birth mom, she was our cheerleader, coach and adviser all wrapped up into one! We were so very grateful for everything she did for us. She was available to us 24/7 and she was so very personal and friendly. We could tell this was not just a job for her, it is her passion and calling and it shows!
The advice I would give other adoptive couples is to never stop believing that miracles happen and never lose hope. A miracle ended up happening in our story. We have two older daughters 7 and 8 years old. We were wanting more children but had been trying to conceive again since our 7 year old was two and were told we had fertility issues and probably would not be able to conceive again. We were hoping and praying for twins to adopt the whole time we were in the adoption journey. Well, about 2 months before we were matched with a birth mom, we found out we were expecting! Then a birth mom contacted us and really wanted our family for her little girl even though we were expecting as well, and so our dream twins came true! Our little boy, Seth Andrew, ended up being born just 2 weeks before his “little” sister Evelyn Noel. Our family is perfectly complete now and we are loving our “twins”.
We feel so blessed, and full. God is good and we are so very grateful to the staff at Everlasting Adoptions for being a huge part of our story!
With all our love, Ruth & Andrew
Joe & Gretchen
We decided to contact Everlasting Adoptions after doing a lot of research on the internet and checking around. We had a lengthy conversation with Carol that included an excellent summary of their process and philosophy as well as a detailed Q & A session. We felt very confident that we were making the right choice after talking with her.
All throughout our experience with Everlasting, our calls & emails were returned promptly; all our questions were answered, and we felt we were treated with empathy and given emotional support from the caring staff. We would enthusiastically recommend them to anyone considering adoption!
Once we contracted with Everlasting, we worked on getting home study approved as soon as possible and creating our profile for the website. We went “live” on their website after only about a month. We also began preparing a nursery in our home and gathering the essentials for dealing with a newborn. We felt it helped us emotionally to control what we could on our end and took an “if you build it, she will come” philosophy. Gretchen also really enjoyed bargain hunting for all the cute baby girl outfits!
Our hard work and preparedness (Thank you, Gretchen. I love you, and yes, you were vindicated!) really paid off, as our wild ride was about to begin. After just over two months “live” with Everlasting, we were spending a leisurely Sunday morning at home when Carol contacted us about a birth mother having a baby girl, due in less than two weeks! We were extremely excited and looking forward to calling the birth mother the next day. We were then disappointed when we couldn’t reach her at the scheduled time on that Monday. However, later that afternoon, we got a call from Carol telling us that the mother was going to give birth that same day! She had chosen us as the adoptive couple, and it was time to drop everything, pack up, and make the 7 1/2 hour journey to a town in a neighboring state! At 4:30 am Tuesday, after driving through heavy rain most of the night, we got to lay eyes on the most beautiful baby in the world—our dream girl, Giovanna Belle!
Thanks again to Carol and the Everlasting staff for their help and support every step of the way!
Ashley & David
Please Welcome our newest little miracle, Julianne, born 2-8-12. David and Ashley are the proud parents! Julianne was born in Washington, but her birthparents are from Korea! David and Ashley brought them all the way here!
Wow, it was a miraculous story! We wish them many, many blessings with their new family!