Gladney Blog

One of the many questions that people involved in adoption are frequently asked is, "What happens at an adoption placement?".  The answer is that each placement, just like each adoption, is unique and beautiful.

As you are exploring adoption as an option for your family, we are sure that you have many questions. One of those questions is probably about how you are going to pay the adoption fee. As a non-profit agency, we work hard to keep the process of adoption as affordable as possible while ensuring you receive premier service.  

When I was eleven months old, my sister and I were adopted from the Jiangxi province of China. My parents were only expecting to adopt one child at that time, and boy, were they surprised when they received pictures of two baby girls. According to my parents, and the packet of papers they received from the orphanage, my sister and I had been found together on the street at one day old, on April 1, 1999. From there, we were brought to the orphanage and soon after, brought into a foster home. Once we arrived in the United States, it was discovered through DNA tests that my sister and I were only three percent related. We had the same birthday, were the same age, and were together since they day we were born, but we weren’t twins like everyone had thought. Nothing else was known about who our birth parents were, where we were born, what time, and how we ended up together.

As you are exploring adoption as an option for your family, we are sure that you have many questions. Once a month we ask Mike & Astra a question about their adoption experience.

Read the latest information about Gladney's China and Taiwan's adoption program in the Fall 2018 Gladney Newsletter.

As you are exploring adoption as an option for your family, we are sure that you have many questions. Once a month we ask Thomas & Stephanie a question about their adoption experience.

The Beginning

It started in Can Tho, Vietnam when I was placed into a baby home 9 days old until I was two. As I was living in the orphanage for those two years my adopted parents were searching for a child to adopt. It’s crazy to think how I got adopted because I knew they really were looking to adopt a Chinese girl until the adopted agency told them that they have a bunch of Vietnamese kids waiting to be adopted. They’ve told me the story many times and I can still recall it till this day. They received the video, and both of them watched the video separately to see if they would pick the same kid out of the video that they would want and as crazy as it is to think both of my parents picked me. They said that I was the biggest kid and most energetic, so it was easy to point me out, and I still carry those traits today. I have no memory on my travel from Vietnam to the United States, but I’ve definitely been told that I was very scared and confused. I mean, who wouldn’t be confused when coming to a new home?

As you are exploring adoption as an option for your family, we are sure that you have many questions. Once a month we ask Mike & Astra a question about their adoption experience.

In honor of International Charity Day, we thought we would ask Kati Story some questions about her recent Birthday Pledge to Gladney. 

How do you define "family"?

Gladney Adoptee, Zhanna, shares her definition with us: