Our Wings
Our Wings
How Adoption Became My Life’s Work
by Mardie Caldwell, C.O.A.P.
(Certified Open Adoption Practitioner)
I’ve always been a highly motivated person, and my personality can be summed up with this quote: “I’ve made the decision, so let’s do it – NOW!” I owned a manufacturing/wholesale company at the time, and if I wanted something, all I had to do was pick up the phone and call in an order. My secretary would have delivered to my desk shortly after.
But I couldn’t approach adoption in the same way! I had an overwhelming desire to be a mother and all this love to share with a child. I felt like asking, “How do we complete this ‘task’ of parenthood before my deadline?”
For the first week after my husband and I decided to adopt, I drove myself crazy, spending hours each day researching the process of adoption. Adoption agencies told us we were too old to adopt, but I was only 30, and my husband was 40! Other agencies said they couldn’t help us because we hadn’t been married long enough and we were both overweight. Sometimes they said it was because I owned a business and couldn’t be a stay-at-home mom. Other times, we weren’t following the right religion, our income wasn’t high enough, or we lived in the wrong county. I had never received so many rejections in one week.
I decided that if we couldn’t adopt through traditional methods, I would do it myself through networking. With perseverance and persistence, I located and contacted sources. These sources led me to other sources until I found my precious son.
As I held my newborn son in my arms, calls flooded our line from other couples hoping for parenthood. I soon became an adoption coordinator by default. Actually, many of the adoptions I helped with early on were done while I was cooking dinner!
In order to go full steam ahead as an adoption coordinator, I sold my manufacturing/wholesale company. I used my background in marketing as well as the research methods I used for our adoption in 1986. Then, I founded Lifetime Adoption Center and became a Certified Open Adoption Practitioner by the National Federation for Open Adoption Education and a Better Business Bureau member.
Every day was different as an adoption coordinator. Some mornings found me on a last-minute flight to meet with a birth mother. Others were spent on the phone, helping a birth mother in a crisis. Helping bring birth parents and families together through adoption has been a memorable and rewarding experience that I wouldn’t change for the world!
Every adoption is different, and at Lifetime Adoption we’ve seen all kinds of adoptions. We’ve had adoptive couples welcome with open arms babies exposed to drugs in the womb. Lifetime has even worked with a family who adopted their baby from an HIV positive birth mother. We assist with African American and bi-racial adoptions and have helped many single women become adoptive mothers. One birth mother who made an adoption plan for her baby through Lifetime went on to write a book to share her positive story with the world. An attorney who adopted a baby through us with his wife became an adoption attorney – and the list goes on!
Many hopeful adoptive families have found Lifetime Adoption through our websites and social media marketing. The evolution of the Internet has done wonders to put adoptive parents and birth parents in direct contact. The process of adopting and finding adoptive parents has gotten so much more efficient using the Internet. Birth parents and adoptive couples are able to take an active role in seeking their goals. A woman thinking about adoption has the opportunity to read about families, look at their photos, and watch their adoption video in privacy.
Lifetime Adoption helps make more than 120 adoptions possible each year. In 2013, I opened an adoption agency in Florida so that I could help even more hopeful adoptive parents and birth parents meet. We have in-house, 24-hour phone lines and receive over 300 calls every day. Our staff loves what they do! The joy on the faces of the families and birth parents we help keeps us going through the ups and downs of a very emotional business. Our goal is to answer each of your adoption questions honestly and promptly. Since I’ve been there with my son’s adoption, I know it can be done!
Legacy of an Adopted Child
Once there were two women who never knew each other.
One you do not remember, the other you call Mother.
Two different lives shaped to make your one.
One became your guiding star; the other became your sun.
The first one gave you life, and the second taught you to live it.
The first gave you a need for love, the second was there to give it.
One gave you a nationality; the other gave you a name.
One gave you a talent; the other gave you an aim.
One gave you emotions; the other calmed your fears.
One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried your tears.
One sought for you a home that she could not provide,
The other prayed for a child – and her hopes were not denied.
And now you ask me through your tears,
The age-old question unanswered through the years:
Heredity or environment – which are you a product of?
Neither my darling.
Just two different kinds of love.
– Author Unknown
How Adoption Became My Life’s Work
by Mardie Caldwell, C.O.A.P.
(Certified Open Adoption Practitioner)
I’ve always been a highly motivated person, and my personality can be summed up with this quote: “I’ve made the decision, so let’s do it – NOW!” I owned a manufacturing/wholesale company at the time, and if I wanted something, all I had to do was pick up the phone and call in an order. My secretary would have delivered to my desk shortly after.
But I couldn’t approach adoption in the same way!
For the first week after my husband and I decided to adopt, I drove myself crazy, spending hours each day researching the process of adoption. Adoption agencies told us we were too old to adopt, but I was only 30, and my husband was 40! Other agencies said they couldn’t help us because we hadn’t been married long enough and we were both overweight. Sometimes they said it was because I owned a business and couldn’t be a stay-at-home mom. Other times, we weren’t following the right religion, our income wasn’t high enough, or we lived in the wrong county. I had never received so many rejections in one week.
During our adoption journey, I kept a record of all the doctors, counselors, attorneys, and other professionals who helped us. I wrote down each step I took to reach my goal of adopting a baby. Along the way, I met many other couples trying to adopt. They too, were met with roadblocks and red tape put up for apparently ridiculous purposes.
In order to go full steam ahead as an adoption coordinator, I sold my manufacturing/wholesale company. I used my background in marketing as well as the research methods I used for our adoption in 1986. Then, I founded Lifetime Adoption Center and became a Certified Open Adoption Practitioner by the National Federation for Open Adoption Education and a Better Business Bureau member.
Every day was different as an adoption coordinator. Some mornings found me on a last-minute flight to meet with a birth mother. Others were spent on the phone, helping a birth mother in a crisis. Helping bring birth parents and families together through adoption has been a memorable and rewarding experience that I wouldn’t change for the world!
Every adoption is different, and at Lifetime Adoption we’ve seen all kinds of adoptions. We’ve had adoptive couples welcome with open arms babies exposed to drugs in the womb. Lifetime has even worked with a family who adopted their baby from an HIV positive birth mother. We assist with African American and bi-racial adoptions and have helped many single women become adoptive mothers. One birth mother who made an adoption plan for her baby through Lifetime went on to write a book to share her positive story with the world. An attorney who adopted a baby through us with his wife became an adoption attorney – and the list goes on!
Many hopeful adoptive families have found Lifetime Adoption through our websites and social media marketing. The evolution of the Internet has done wonders to put adoptive parents and birth parents in direct contact. The process of adopting and finding adoptive parents has gotten so much more efficient using the Internet. Birth parents and adoptive couples are able to take an active role in seeking their goals. A woman thinking about adoption has the opportunity to read about families, look at their photos, and watch their adoption video in privacy.
Lifetime Adoption helps make more than 120 adoptions possible each year. In 2013, I opened an adoption agency in Florida so that I could help even more hopeful adoptive parents and birth parents meet. We have in-house, 24-hour phone lines and receive over 300 calls every day. Our staff loves what they do! The joy on the faces of the families and birth parents we help keeps us going through the ups and downs of a very emotional business. Our goal is to answer each of your adoption questions honestly and promptly. Since I’ve been there with my son’s adoption, I know it can be done!
Legacy of an Adopted Child
One you do not remember, the other you call Mother.
Two different lives shaped to make your one.
One became your guiding star; the other became your sun.
The first one gave you life, and the second taught you to live it.
The first gave you a need for love, the second was there to give it.
One gave you a nationality; the other gave you a name.
One gave you a talent; the other gave you an aim.
One gave you emotions; the other calmed your fears.
One saw your first sweet smile, the other dried your tears.
One sought for you a home that she could not provide,
The other prayed for a child – and her hopes were not denied.
And now you ask me through your tears,
The age-old question unanswered through the years:
Heredity or environment – which are you a product of?
Neither my darling.
Just two different kinds of love.
– Author Unknown