
One quiet afternoon, Sherie* sat at her desk, writing in her journal, “I am done. It is so emotional. We say yes to any infant adoption situation sent to us, and then we are not being chosen.”
When her husband came home for dinner, she told him the same thing. “I think I’m done.”
Over the past several months, Darla from Heart to Heart and representatives from other adoption agencies had repeatedly reached out. With each call, Sherie’s family was presented with new opportunities: babies already born or soon to arrive. The agencies inquired whether they wished to have their adoption profile shown to expectant mothers considering placement. These calls, tinged with both hope and anxiety, had become a regular part of their lives as prospective adoptive parents.


Emotional Toll of Infant Adoption
Sherie’s husband had just finished hearing his wife’s concerns about the emotional toll this was taking when her cell phone vibrated. A text from Darla: “Do you want to be presented to the birth mother? I emailed you the situation.”
“It was 5:30,” Sherie said. “I had to leave for an event by 5:45. Which meant loading the kids. I didn’t have time to read about what was happening. All I could see was Darla said she needed to know by nine o’clock that night. My husband had another obligation. We weren’t together, so we couldn’t talk. We were texting each other in the middle of the things we were doing. My husband said, ‘Say yes,’ and I thought, ‘Okay, if you want, but I didn’t think much about it. Darla had presented us with other situations that didn’t go anywhere. We went to bed that night, turned the ringer off on our phones like we always do, never imagining that tonight would change our lives forever.”
At two in the morning, Sherie’s son woke her up with an earache. While caring for him, she checked her phone.
“You’ve been matched.”
“Call me ASAP”
“You need to go to California today.”
These were just some of Darla’s several messages and texts.
“One thing I appreciated,” Sherie said, “was how supportive Heart to Heart Adoptions was of us bringing our other kids to California. Our kids would not have wanted to stay home without us, and it wouldn’t have felt complete. Other agencies had already said we needed to find alternate arrangements for our children. I was very thankful for Heart to Heart letting us bring them.”
Here, Sherie interrupts her sequential story and says, “I had to be willing to take the time to tell you our story. People need to know how thankful I am for Heart to Heart Adoptions. They were fantastic. Darla, she was so, so good. She would send us situations. So easy to communicate with. She didn’t make me feel dumb for asking questions. She always responded. Some of the other agencies would ignore me. We had applied to a few different agencies. I repeatedly told my husband that I hope we get matched with Heart to Heart Adoptions. Their communication level was a notch above.”


When the family landed in California, they were expected to go directly to the hospital.


* Names have been changed. To respect the birth mother's privacy as she places in an infant adoption, the images in this post are stock photos that reflect the emotions and themes of the story.
“But we called Sharyn (a case manager from the Heart to Heart Adoptions),” Sherie explained. “I told her that we would be late. Our daughter had an infected spot on her leg, and as we were flying, it got worse. My husband took her to urgent care. Sharyn was not upset. She just made it work. So sweet. That felt huge. They would have been sad and bitter if we had left them at home, ‘Oh, Caleb took Mom and Dad away from us.’ But we took them, and they felt they were in the story. They love him so much.
“Sharyn was so wonderful. She was so amazingly kind, supportive, and helpful. Sometimes, even now, I text her. She is so great at responding. She is really, really super to work with.”