Posted November 20, 2024
Many people wish to start a family and have children of their own, but in some cases, these plans are forced to change.
Josh and Christie always wanted a family of their own and started with having their biological daughter, Ava.
After Ava was born, however, Christie dealt with a lot of health complications, but they wanted to continue to build their family.
“After I had Ava, I had a lot of health complications, but we knew we weren’t done growing our family,” Christie said.
It was then that Josh and Christie decided that growing their family through adoption would be the best alternative.
“We’re very happy to be able to have Ava, but it was a lot of complications with Christie, and we just knew that doing it on our own wasn’t going to be the best,” Josh said.
Christie had heard about Catholic Charities through one of her High School friends and was able to contact Adoption Social Worker Ellen Specht.
“The whole process from start to finish was wonderful.” Christie said, “Ellen was our Social Worker... She met with us, she met with our children, answered all of our questions...”
Going through the adoption process can take months and sometimes even years for a family to get the call about a child, but for Josh and Christie, it was sooner.
“I think we were kind of expecting a long haul for really both calls to kind of happened quicker than we imagined. It was pretty surprising and exciting,” Josh said.
When Josh and Christie got the call about their adoptive daughter, Charlotte, they had just finished their home study a few weeks prior.
“I thought she [Ellen] needed something else from me, that I thought I missed something,” Christie said, “she [Ellen] said, ‘There’s a healthy baby girl. You were chosen as the family.”
Ellen then brought Charlotte to Josh and Christie’s home, where they had family waiting for their daughter.
“We had family waiting. We had people videotaping... and Ava, of course, stayed home from school that day,” Christie said.
A few years after adopting Charlotte, Josh and Christie would repeat the process with their son William.
They got the call about being chosen for Will while his birth mom was still pregnant.
According to Christie, she was able to take the birth mom to all her appointments from the third trimester to delivery, be in the delivery room during Will’s birth, and stay with the mom for three days afterward.
Ava always wanted to be a big sister, so when she found out she was going to have a second sibling, she was shocked.
“I was shocked and surprised with Will. I was at school that day and I couldn’t wait to go home and actually meet him.” Ava said.
Choosing to go through the adoption process to extend your family is a long journey, but with the right support system it is worth the wait.
“A lot of other agencies that we looked into were very transactional, very financially like motivated,” Christie said, “I felt like our experience with Ellen and Catholic Charities was truly strictly about what is the best for this child...”
At Catholic Charities, our Adoption Services assist and support birth families who may be scared, overwhelmed, or who simply want what's best for their child. We also help those looking to grow their families by assisting them through the adoption process.
To learn more about adoption services, click the button below.
Part of the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland
