A Child Waits Foundation
Adoption Grants & Adoption Loans
International and Domestic Adoption
Family Stories
Domestic Adoption 2024
In 2024 we awarded grants to help 204 children to be adopted from 21 different countries and 28 states in the USA. Some of their wonderful pictures and adoption experiences are recounted below in the family's own words.
Hope - New Jersey
We are Brooke and Rob. We met in 2013 and were married in 2016. Since our time spent together as a couple, we both have been passionate about starting a family. Early on in these family oriented discussions we both expressed interest in adoption, but figured that would happen further down the road. Neither of us have any outside connection to adoption, but for some reason it has always been close to both of our hearts. It’s not often that you experience grief in the same way as your spouse/partner, but together, we have, and we are firm in believing that our experience with infertility has strengthened our relationship. We have grown together in this understanding and realize just how much we desire to be parents.
In August of 2022 we began our adoption journey and chose to pursue an open adoption with a private adoption agency. After several months of paperwork, educational courses, and a thorough home study the wait for our child began in March of 2023. Almost a full year later we received a call from our social worker that we had been matched with a baby girl named ‘Hope Rose”. Our social worker told us that Hope was a month old, she spent her first month of life in the hospital under medical supervision and was now ready to be discharged. The next day we drove three hours to New Jersey to meet our daughter for the first time. We spent the next few weeks in New Jersey getting to know her and spending quality time as a family of three. We returned home just in time for the Easter holiday to introduce her to extended family and settle into our home.
Hope is now almost five months old, she is healthy and growing more and more each day. She is very smile; she loves going on walks around town with her two pups, and has just mastered rolling from her back to her belly. Our family is extremely grateful for the generosity of your organization. Hope has filled our lives with so much joy and purpose. Your grant has helped lower the financial burden and allows us to focus on what is most important, our daughter. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for not only supporting our family but for your commitment to enriching the lives of adoptees. Thank you, Brooke, Rob, & Hope
Aiden - Arizona
We always knew that we wanted children. Michael an only child and Kaitlyn, the eldest of six, had always assumed that children would be in their future. After an infertility diagnosis, we began exploring other options and felt that adoption was a route after God's own heart.
We began working toward building a future that would accommodate a child, which meant moving states to afford a home and even switching jobs. We were introduced to Adoption Solutions of Arizona through friends who had also adopted and upon meeting with the agency, knew that was what we wanted. After a year of applications and home studies, we were approved by the judge and waited. Our profile was shown to several expectant moms the agency was connected with while providing them with care, but we weren't chosen.
When Aiden was born, his mom wasn't in the position to raise a child and wanted to choose a forever family for her child. She saw our profile first and would look at no others. The same day, we received a phone call saying that a mom wanted us to adopt her baby and to drop everything to come see him. We drove 3 hours through rush-hour traffic to arrive at the hospital where Aiden would spend two weeks in the NICU. We stayed in the hospital, holding him as much as we could and bonding with him. Even the nurses realized how attached Aiden was getting to us and when he was well enough, they relocated him to our hospital room to be close to us.
His adoption was finalized on May 9th. Now, at almost 4 months, he is happy, healthy, and full of smiles. We are so in love with him and remind him every day that Jesus chose us to be his mommy and daddy and he was chosen to be our baby.
Lorenzo - Washington
Baby Lorenzo joined our family unexpectedly right before the holidays. We had been trying to grow our family for a long time. We found out we couldn't have any more biological children several years ago and since then, we tried fertility treatment, we became foster parents hoping to adopt, and we had one disrupted adoption match.
It had been a long difficult journey and we weren't sure for how much longer we could keep trying. Then we got a surprise call that a baby boy was waiting for us in a hospital on the other side of our state! He had been born 6 weeks premature and spent a while in the NICU, but on the first day we met him he was ready to go home.
His birth mother is Mexican, as is my husband, and she was so happy to know that her baby would be raised to speak Spanish. We believe he was meant to be with our family and we're so thankful he found us. It was certainly the best holiday gift we ever could have received!
We are so grateful to A Child Waits Foundation for the generous grant that helped make this adoption possible.
"GG" - Florida
For as long as I can remember, I’ve known that motherhood would be a part of my life. Nurturing young people has always been at the core of who I am, and it runs deep in my family’s history. We are a family of teachers, preschool educators, nurses, and women who find joy in encouraging and inspiring the next generation. My career as a creative and author has allowed me to nurture children and families through stories, cheering them on as they navigate the precious passage from childhood to adulthood.
Motherhood has always been my personal dream, and I knew from an early age that my path to becoming a mother might look different from the traditional route. As I approached 40, I realized that the time had come to explore how I could fulfill this lifelong desire. I had always felt a natural pull towards fostering or adoption, even though it wasn’t something commonly discussed among those around me. It felt right for me, and when I began the process a few years ago, I did so with my heart and eyes wide open.
The journey has been incredible. As a single woman, navigating the mountain of paperwork and the emotional ups and downs of the adoption process required patience, resilience, and a lot of hope. But along the way, I gained so much insight and a deep appreciation for the journey itself. When I was matched last October, I wasn’t sure what to expect. After a year of preparation and anticipation, I held my breath and trusted that whatever was meant to be, would be.
And what came into my life was the greatest gift I could have ever imagined—my son, "G G". The experience of being matched with his amazing birth mother, finding the right adoption consultant, and having the unwavering support of my community has been nothing short of magical. "G G’s" birth on Christmas Day felt like the ultimate blessing, a true fairytale moment that I will cherish forever.
In the midst of this beautiful experience, I was deeply touched to receive a generous grant from A Child Waits Foundation. As someone who largely self-funded my adoption journey with the help of my family and community, I can’t express enough how much this support means to me. Adoption is an expensive and challenging process, and organizations like A Child Waits Foundation make it possible for families to realize their dreams, even after countless starts and stops. When I received the call from Raymona about the grant, I was overwhelmed with gratitude. This support has already made a significant impact on our future, and I am so thankful for the Foundation’s commitment to helping families like mine. On behalf of myself, my sweet "GG", and our entire community, thank you from the bottom of my heart. Your work is invaluable, and I hope you continue to empower families for generations to come.
Moses - Arizona
Dear A Child Waits Foundation,
Thank you so much for the generous grant to help us fund Moses's adoption! We are writing now because we just had our adoption hearing yesterday, so our adoption process is legally complete!
We originally planned to do this adoption (our second) through the help of an attorney to reduce our costs. However, we did our home study through an adoption agency, and as a result, were put on their list to see expectant birth mother profiles. We weren’t really giving these profiles as high of priority as the ones we saw through adoption attorneys because of the significantly higher cost of using an agency.
Despite this, when we saw the profile for Moses's birth mother, we felt very strongly that we should submit to have our profile shown to her — even with the higher cost. When she called us with her agency social worker to say she wanted us to be the parents of her child, we knew that despite the agency not being in our plans, this was the right route for us.
Though we were thrilled to have been matched, the added cost of going through an agency put an extra burden on our finances, even with help from family and friends. The grant from A Child Waits offered some much-needed financial relief, and we are so happy to now officially be the parents of two. Thank you so much for your generosity in providing us with this grant to help us cover the costs!
Camden - Florida
Thank you so much for our adoption grant. It helped tremendously with our expenses.
“Our adoption story begins in 2020 when we decided adoption was the path we wanted to take to expand our family. We felt in our hearts that a family is made by love, and not blood; and we knew adoption was the course we wanted to take.
Fast forward to 2023 when after trying private adoption, we were connected with ACF adoptions. They were a blessing and were the perfect fit for us finding our family. In February of 2024 we received a profile to review and after much prayer we felt a connection and submitted our profile to the birth mother. A few days later Brittany’s father had a stroke and she was in the hospital 24:7 with him for 5 days. While there we were notified that while the birth mom loved our profile; she did not ultimately choose us. We were of course devastated, but knew it was Gods plan as we needed to focus on Brittany’s father. Prayers worked and Brittany’s father was discharged with almost no deficits from the stoke.
A few weeks later in the afternoon of February 22 (Aaron’s birthday!) while Brittany was at work she received a call from ACF. They explained that the birth mother had a change of heart and if we were still interested that she would like to choose us. Oh, and… she was being admitted to the hospital to be induced. We needed to get on a plane right away. Brittany quickly said yes and burst into tears with her co workers surrounding her in hugs. Brittany called Aaron and told him the news, and he thought she was joking. She quickly wrapped up things at work and rushed home.
Little did Aaron know Brittany had planned a surprise birthday dinner with friends for him that evening. At home we cried, thanked God, and told our parents. I then told him that 20 of our friends were waiting for him for dinner at a local restaurant. We went there thanked them for coming and said “oh by the way we are leaving tomorrow to adopt our baby”. After much silence our friends erupted in cheers and tears. So many prayers had been answered.
Within 24 hours we had a birthday dinner, booked flights, packed, and flew to the birth state to meet with the birth mother. We bonded immediately and realized that this whole situation was meant to be. The saying says, “there is no such thing as coincidences” and there has been so many in this adoption story; we know this was the path that was always meant to be.
Two days after getting the call Camden Olin Ronald was born. We spent time with him and the birth mother and then the rest of our time was spent with just him. After 12 days in the NICU he was finally discharged: tiny but mighty and healthy. We met with his birth mom one last time, said our goodbyes and took pictures for Cam in the future. Then after 21 days we finally made it home to a wonderful reception with our family and friends.
While our adoption journey was never easy. There was tears, fears, and so many unknowns; we know this was where we were always meant to be. We are going to shower Camden with so much love, and show him that the power of prayer is amazing. We will let him know that his birth mother loved him so much and show him the pictures and share our miraculous story. A story that is filled with love, prayer, and so much support from so many people that loved him before they even knew him. “
Ava Grace - Arizona
We want to thank A Child Waits Foundation again for awarding us a grant for our adoption. We truly appreciate it. Our little Ava is such a blessing. We have waited a long time for her and she was absolutely worth the wait! On July 10th, our adoption was finalized! Leon is still deployed until Oct. but we can see the end of the tunnel!
Emma Rose - Kentucky
We would like to say thank you for the very generous grant that your foundation awarded us! It is truly appreciated and we are humbled by your generosity. We are beyond blessed to have been able to adopt our daughter Emma, and this award will help with the costs associated with adoption.
Our daughter Emma is a tremendous blessing to us. We have wanted to have a baby for many years but have struggled with infertility. Through prayer and consideration, we came to the conclusion that we were called to adopt and began to pursue this in April of 2023. We went through the proper steps and we were active with four different agencies by August of 2023. In December of 2023, we got the call that we were matched with a birth mother. That unfortunately, ended in a disruption in February, 2024. Then on the afternoon of April 10th, 2024, we received an email from our agency stating that a baby girl had been born the previous day. We were able to talk very briefly during the work day and reply at the requested time. That evening at 7:30pm, we received the phone call that would change our lives forever. We were chosen! We had to drive to KY right away and needed to be prepared to stay for up to two weeks. We hurried to pack our car and take care of things at home. We arrived at the hospital at 1am, met our daughter at 3am, and signed the papers at 11am. This was all less than 24hrs since receiving the initial email. We fell in love instantly! We named our daughter Emma Rose Moeller and we know that she was meant to be our daughter. We were not able to meet Emma’s birth mother but we did talk to a case worker who went between us. We were able to write her a long letter and give a small gift. We have a website that is run by the agency where we write her letters and post pictures of Emma. We are forever grateful that she loved Emma enough to place her with a family and we are honored that she chose us to be that family. Emma is a healthy and happy baby. She has tripled her birth weight and is meeting her milestones. She is adored by her two sets of grandparents, three sets of aunts and uncles, and eight cousins. Emma is a miracle and our whole family feels so lucky to have her.
Thank you again for your very generous grant. Adoption is wonderful and life-changing but can be difficult in many ways. Your generosity is helping many families seeking to grow their families.
Piper - Florida
My wife, Sarah, and I have filled our lives with children for many years, serving as aunts, godparents, exchange hosts, foster parents, respite providers, and school staff. For a number of years, we wanted to start our own family, but were delayed due to family illness, COVID, insufficient funding, and other unavoidable major life hurdles.
When all the pieces finally aligned for us to become parents, we decided that domestic newborn private adoption was the best fit for us at that point in our lives. Our daughter Piper was born on June 10, 2024. We have a wonderful relationship with her birth mother and will be maintaining a very open adoption relationship. We consider ourselves to have an incredibly cohesive and beautiful adoption story, because we were able to get to know first mom ahead of time and then spend time with her and Piper in the hospital before Piper became our daughter.
We were exceedingly grateful to receive the grant from A Child Waits Foundation because the high cost of private adoption was essentially out of reach for us. We have only made it work through a generous loan from a supportive family member. We are so grateful to A Child Waits Foundation because you have enabled us to move forward as a family with far more financial freedom (and way less stress!). Thank you for helping to alleviate this burden and free us up to enjoy this precious time in our lives.
Miles - Florida
We wanted to thank you, A Child Waits Foundation, so much for the grant that was awarded to us for the adoption of Miles. Our story is a bit of a crazy one.
After five years of marriage and trying to start a family, we were told that we wouldn't be able to have kids and that is when our adoption journey began. Just as we were about to sign paperwork with our first agency we found out we were pregnant with our first child, Oliver. After five more years of trying, we jumped back into the adoption world. We were set and signed with an agency, Tara Lee out of Michigan. We were matched with our first expectant mother and were off and running. We found out it was a boy and had a gender reveal and name picked out, Barry.
Just before Thanksgiving of 2018, we received a call from the FBI letting us know that Tara was arrested and that the whole thing was fabricated. She had been scamming people on and off for almost 15 years and we were the last one before the feds jumped in. Devastated, my wife and I did not know where to go from there. A couple months later, my wife felt called to pursue adoption again. We hesitantly began the process over again, this time with a different social worker and agency. We were matched soon after, but it was hard for us to feel fully connected because of what happened previously. I work for the church and speak about how God works in ways beyond our understanding. When we looked at the due date of our new baby, it was 9 months to the day from when the FBI called us. God had a plan for us. We went and got Barry. We thought we were done with adoption after that, the process was emotionally draining and too long to put into writing here.
Two years later, my wife had the feeling we needed to adopt again. The next day we received a call from our old agency saying Barry’s birth mother was pregnant again and was wondering if we were interested in working with them. That’s when Nora joined our family.
Two years later, you see where this is going, we got a call right before Thanksgiving of 2023 (five years to the day of the FBI call) from the same agency, wondering if we were interested in adopting again from Barry and Nora’s mom. This time the agency was going through a lot of changes and it was the most emotionally draining experience of our life. The mom was struggling with a lot of things, including issues with the birth father, and things were very uncertain until three weeks before Miles was born. So we were panicking that it was all going to fall through in the end. We flew down with the whole family and waited for Miles to be born. It has been a crazy and amazing journey since then, and we just finalized Miles' adoption as of Sept 24th.
From no adoption to three beautiful children from the same mother, God had a plan for us in the midst of the hurt back in 2013. We cannot wait to see what the future holds for us and our family, but for now we are cherishing every moment with these adorable kids. We could not have done it without the help of generous people like yourself.
Aya - Michigan
We are so thankful to A Child Waits for your generous adoption grant!
Our adoption story is a bit different than most. We already had two biological children and had no health concerns or infertility that would prevent us having more children. When our youngest was just 7 months old, we felt God was calling us to adopt, and we got started on the process immediately. We were very concerned about the financial burden it would place on our family, but we decided to follow God’s lead and trust him with the rest.
Just 5 weeks after we became an active waiting family with our adoption agency, we found out about a baby girl who had been born the night before. We had 45 minutes to decide if we would be open to adopting her, and shortly after saying yes, we were told we had been chosen! Our daughter Aya spent 10 days in the NICU, and then the day we brought her home we found out we were expecting baby number 4!
We could never have planned anything this wonderful ourselves. We know God had a plan all along, and we just feel incredibly grateful to be Aya’s parents. And the financial help from A Child Waits has really been a blessing to our family during this time.
Avery - Florida
We cannot thank A Child Waits Foundation enough for their generosity and support.
Like many others, we were ready to be parents. For 8 years, we struggled with infertility and various treatments. However, to no avail, we were left heartbroken and at a loss. Then through the grace of God, we were brought to the realization, adoption was likely our only option for a chance to grow our family. We thought the process would take a while and we would have time to continue setting money aside and build up our adoption “fund.” However, we were placed on the waiting list at the beginning of January 2024 and on April 24th, 2024, our baby girl was born. The very next evening we got a call that we had been selected by a birth mother and our baby girl could come home the following day (04/26/2024).
We were both overly ecstatic and couldn’t fully process the blessing. We immediately began sharing our excitement with our friends and family. Even though the excitement was not short lived, we were burdened with new worries. We faced the remaining adoption fees that were going to be due VERY soon. We quickly put together a go-fund-me page and looked through our accounts, realizing that we were still short of funds. We were previously denied other grants and had one grant left for consideration. We prayed for some relief. Over the next few months, we were able to spend time with our new baby girl and watch her grow, however, still heavily burdened with the adoption fees.
A few weeks before the the fees for finalization and courts fee’s were coming due, we received a call from A Child Waits Foundations. We were given great news! We were approved for a grant. The amount of relief this brought to our family is indescribable.