When we first began our adoption journey ten years ago, we had no idea as a gay couple what to expect. This was in the days before gay marriage was legal, and gay adoption seemed pretty “out there” to us, especially open adoption. Would prospective birth moms even consider us? Would we wait years? Fortunately, we had the good fortune to contact Joan Smith from AFTH as our social worker. She was amazing, reassuring, and confident that we would be good dads. Much to our surprise we were connected to a birth mother who was in every sense perfect for our profile within a matter of weeks. Our first interview with our birth mother happened before the ink was dry on our adoption profile, and we became a family in a time frame neither of us had dreamed possible. Two years later, we became a family of four with an out-of-state adoption again arranged via Joan and AFTH with a second newborn child under somewhat more chaotic circumstances, but again Joan was amazing and helped us negotiate the chaos. Today, we are Daddy and Papa to two amazing sons, and we are very grateful for the role that AFTH played in making our family possible.
Bill, Scott, and sons
