Hi everyone! I’m Laura, and I am an intern in the Birth Parent Services department. One of my main roles at Gladney is to research ways to improve birth parent experiences through more readable documents and evaluation surveys. I get excited knowing the work I am doing is reducing barriers birth parents face as they create adoption plans. However, my sweetest times at Gladney have not been behind a computer screen, but have been in hospital rooms and out in the community loving on sweet birth families. Leading up to my internship, I prayed that I would get to hold a precious baby and on my first day here, I was blessed with the opportunity to carry and love on an adorable baby boy. It is amazing how a baby so tiny can hold such a big place in your heart.

One of my newest Gladney stories happened just this morning. A birth family we had been working with for some time now, chose a forever family for their little girl and today was placement day. If you are not familiar with how Gladney does some placements, let me just tell you there are lots of hugs and tears (mostly happy).  The birth parents walked in the placement room with their baby and as the doors opened, the adoptive parents got to see their child for the first time. Hugs and tears were exchanged as one family said goodbye and another said hello to the newest member of their family.  The room quickly became filled with love for that sweet girl and in that moment I knew she is going to be loved for life by everyone there today. It was amazing.

My internship at Gladney has far exceeded any expectation I had for an internship. Something that I learned early on in my internship is that Gladney doesn’t just do adoptions. There is so much more that happens before and after an actual adoption even takes place. From grief and loss counseling, to job placement, to post adoption support groups, Gladney makes sure that everyone who comes through Gladney (including interns) leave better than when they started.