 Independent Adoption Center Profiles Birthparents, Adoptive Parents, and Adopted Children: This Month, Meet Adoptive Parents Natalie & Kyle from West Lafayette, Indiana 6 January, 2006 – West Lafayette, Indiana. Each month, IAC – a nationally recognized nonprofit education and counseling agency – will present a profile of birthparents, adoptive parents, or children who have been adopted. A pioneer in open adoption, Independent Adoption Center (IAC) is nationally recognized as a leader in the field having facilitated almost 4,000 successful adoptions in 35 states. Headquartered in the Northern California town of Pleasant Hill, IAC has southern California offices in Los Angeles, and also operates centers in Indiana, North Carolina and Georgia. IAC will celebrate its 25 anniversary in May 2007. Profiled from the State of Indiana for the month of January are adoptive parents Natalie & Kyle from West Lafayette. Natalie says, “after a lot of research on the Internet, Kyle and I decided that open adoption was the way we would build our family. I gathered information on several agencies that offered open adoption, but IAC was the only agency I found that ONLY did open adoption.” Natalie and Kyle went to an open adoption session at IAC in October 2005, which sealed the deal for them. They attended a weekend intensive workshop two weeks later and completed the paperwork, their homestudy, their website, and their “ Dear Birthmother” letter. They were in the book by mid-November. Their first few contacts did not follow through, then in April 2006 they discovered that birthparents from their state had picked their letter. They spoke with the birth mother that evening. “Talking with Hannah’s birth mother was like connecting with a long lost relative,” said Natalie. “We developed a great relationship with her and her family in the two months before the baby was born. She invited us to her ultrasound appointments and we found out we were having a girl. Hannah was born on July 6, 2006.” Now that Hannah is five months old, the Spontaks have frequent phone contact with her birth mother and visit as many times as they can. “I can’t say enough about IAC,” said Natalie. “Adopting Hannah through them was the best thing that has ever happened to us. They were always there to give us pep talks and lend a sympathetic ear.” Kathy Wilkerson, Midwest Branch Director of IAC, said, “Natalie and Kyle maintain close contact with Hannah’s birth parents. They have become big advocates of open adoption, referring a number of their friends to IAC.” Ann Wrixon, Executive Director of the Independent Adoption Center and herself the mother of an
As a nonprofit organization, the IAC’s mission is to create open adoptions: that is, a completely voluntary adoption where birth parents select the family they want to adopt their child. It is a viable and accessible alternative to untimely pregnancy throughout the United States. IAC will celebrate its 25 anniversary in May 2007. For more information, please call 1-800-877-6736 or visit www.adoptionhelp.org. Media Contacts: David Perry & Associates, Inc. / David Perry & Barbara Webb (415) 693-0583 / news@davidperry.com |
