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Home / Blog / Adoptive Family Stories

Celebrating the Journey to Motherhood

May 7, 2025 by Mat Brutger

For Kirsten Lemke, Mother’s Day is more than a celebration of being a mom — it’s a chance to reflect on the journey that made her motherhood possible. Growing up,

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Filed Under: Adoptive Family Stories, Donor Stories, International Adoption

Paying It Forward

Paying It Forward

July 11, 2023 by Staff Contributor

“There will never be a way we could pay back Children’s Home for what they did for our family. That’s why we try to pay it forward by contributing so

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Filed Under: Adoptive Family Stories, Today's Child and Family

Expanding Our Capacity to Love

Expanding Our Capacity to Love

July 11, 2023 by Staff Contributor

After seven years of marriage, Gretchen and Jill Rode were ready to add a child to their lives. The two Lutheran pastors in St. Paul, Minnesota applied to the infant

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Filed Under: Adoptive Family Stories, Foster Care Adoption, News, Parenting, Today's Child and Family

Photo collage of waiting children and child specific recruiter

Child Specific Recruitment Services | The Relationships

July 28, 2022 by Staff Contributor

As a supervisor in Children’s Home’s foster care and adoption programs, Amy Fogel specializes in the work of child specific recruitment (CSR) which means advocating for youth who are facing

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Filed Under: Adoptive Family Stories, Foster Care, Foster Care Adoption, Today's Child and Family

Family Ties

Family Ties

March 7, 2022 by Staff Contributor

Like many families, the structure of Sierra’s family is complex. Her blended family started when she became an adult foster provider to Christine who had aged out of the child

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Filed Under: Adoptive Family Stories, Foster Care, Foster Care Adoption, Today's Child and Family

Adoption from India

Dreams, Love & Siddharth

March 7, 2022 by Staff Contributor

As a child growing up in India, Vidya’s dream was to build a family through adoption. Her family moved to the Philippines when she was seven, then to Japan, and

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Filed Under: Adoptive Family Stories, Culture and Heritage, International Adoption, News, Today's Child and Family

Two dads and son sitting on porch, one dad with arms around family

Supporting an Organization That Puts Kids First

April 27, 2021 by kristina berg

Seven years ago, Tom Ewald and Joe Thom took their first step toward becoming parents by contacting Children’s Home. They were looking for a referral to a welcoming adoption agency.

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Filed Under: Adoptive Family Stories, Foster Care Adoption, News, Parenting, Today's Child and Family

Tour Korea: A Dad’s Perspective

October 26, 2020 by viadmin

My wife Susan, and 7-year-old daughter Amanda went to Korea in the year 2000 to pick up our daughter and Amanda’s new baby sister—Marisa. In the Summer of 2019, Marisa

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Filed Under: Adoptive Family Stories, Culture and Heritage, International Adoption, News

A Family’s 70 Year Journey With LSS

February 26, 2020 by Staff Contributor

Though 92-year-old Betty says she hasn’t “thought about adoption for a long time,” the ripples of how adoption touched her life are throughout her home. Photos of smiling children and

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Filed Under: Adoptive Family Stories, News

How Tour Korea Changed My Life

February 11, 2020 by viadmin

My name is Kelsey, I’m 23 years old and I was adopted when I was four months old. When I was younger, my family and I would go to Korean

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Filed Under: Adoptive Family Stories, Culture and Heritage, International Adoption, News

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