Chance Encounter Between Strangers Creates an Adoption Connection
One day, outside Orangetheory Fitness, a woman is walking on a sidewalk, going about her day. She sees a man coming in the opposite direction. He isn’t doing anything out of the ordinary, but his mask catches her attention. Masks are very common these days, in the time of COVID; however, the logo on the mask is unique. The mask is white with purple lettering. It reads “Building Beautiful Families, Adoptions From The Heart.” She feels an instant connection as that’s the agency that helped her build her own beautiful family two decades prior.
Sharon bumped into AFTHtv’s cameramen, Rizzo, that day on the street. In that chance encounter, the two bonded over their relationships with the agency. Rizzo as a proud supporter of open adoption and a birth father. Sharon as a proud adoptive mother of two wonderful daughters.
Sharon’s daughter, Sara, is an international adoptee, who came into her life after waiting almost 2 years to adopt. Sara was at 15 months old at that time. Sara was born in Hubei, China and through adoption become a part of Sharon’s family in the United States. Sharon notes how strange it is that Sara left China when SARS just began settling down. And now, the world faces with another disease COVID. Despite any hardships she faced along the way, today, Sara thrives. She just finished her first year in university as a Chemistry major.
Sharon’s younger daughter, Megan, came into her life through a foster to adopt program in New York. It was an identified adoption and AFTH helped with the home study and home visit reports as well as working with our attorney to complete interstate compact requirements. Today, Megan is about to complete her junior year of high school. Her future goals are to pursue social work, psychology, or even public policy when she goes to college. Despite this being a closed adoption, Sharon still provides Megan’s birth mother with photos and updates of her daughter.
It has been a long time since Sharon last thought about the agency as her children are mostly grown, and yet when she bumped into Rizzo, she had nothing but kind and positive words for him.
She said, adoption is the “best thing I ever did…Adoption is a great thing. And I know there is a lot of trauma surrounding adoption, and it’s not always perfect. And we definitely have had challenges being a multiracial family. But it was a great option for our family, and we are so grateful.”
To watch the exchange captured between the two, click here: Chance Encounter
To read another inspiration AFTH blog about an adoptee becoming an adoption advocate, click here.
