The 2018 TCS New York City Marathon is coming up on November 4th. Between now & then, we'll be introducing you to Gladney's charity runners.
Meet Ken, a Gladney Dad
“I am honored to be running the 2018 TCS New York City Marathon while representing the Gladney Center for Adoption. I am running to help promote adoption and foster care as a special and rewarding way to build a family. All our friends and family know our personal adoption story – now being able to spread the word of the Gladney story to others is something that feels very rewarding to me. Raising money to support Gladney’s great mission is also something I believe in and am thrilled to be able to do. I have been blown away by all the donations for Gladney I have received!
We adopted our daughter through Gladney’s Domestic Infant adoption program back in 2006. We have a special relationship with the Transitional Care parents who cared for our daughter for a few weeks prior to her being placed with us. We became very attached to them and as a result, we wanted them to stay in all our lives so we chose them to be our daughter’s godparents. We keep in close contact with them, see each other on a regular basis, and even vacation together.
The one Gladney memory that really stands out for us, maybe even more than placement day, is attending Domestic Orientation. We traveled from Connecticut to go to the orientation at Gladney, as we were still exploring adoption options. As soon as we walked in and started the day, we knew Gladney was special. We left there that day knowing we would soon have the child we had always dreamed of, and we had chills of excitement. We all know the difficulty in trying to start a family can be a grueling, stressful time. Gladney gave us our first real signs of hope, and we started filling out the application paperwork on the flight home! It was such a great experience to meet the staff, birth mothers, and other adoptive families going through the same process. To this day, we are still in touch with the people that we met and sat with at Orientation. One of the couples we met adopted their daughter 3 weeks before us. They live close by, so we see each other often and our “Gladney Girls” are great friends. We all have that connection for life.”Help the team reach their goals & create bright futures through adoption!
