Greetings from San Antonio! I hope each one of you enjoyed the recent Memorial Day holiday. This year, perhaps more than ever, it was more than just the unofficial beginning of summer, as so many families took time to reflect on the great sacrifice men and women have made during the past year after the events of September 11th.

On a happier note, it has been a truly "memorable" month for several A.S.A. families, who had the opportunity to celebrate the recent Mother's Day holiday by cuddling with their brand new baby!

Congratulations!

Every child comes with a message that God is not yet discouraged of man. --Rabindranath Tagore

Both the domestic and international programs at A.S.A. continue to be busy… that translates into abundant happiness for these families who've just been enlarged through adoption……..

Domestic Adoptions
John & Suzanne - John Carlos
Dennis & Bernadette - Michael Robert
Richard & Sibylle - Sarah Jane
Mike & Cynde - Zachary Alexander
Raymond & Mary Ellen - Caitlin Elizabeth Brittany
Valerie - Jacob McKenzie
Brian & Sharyn - Ian Robert
Donald & Victoria - Ashleigh Austin
Peter & Kathy - Elizabeth Lynn

International Adoptions
Ed & Sue - Joseph Pavel
Stephen & Diana - Aidan Andre

Meet our Staff…

In the tenth part of our series introducing A.S.A. staff members, I'd like to introduce Leah Castro…

Hi! I'm the newest counselor at A.S.A. Before joining the agency, I worked for Child Protective Services for six years. As a caseworker for C.P.S., I worked with children who came into the foster care system. I loved working with the kids but there weren't very many happy outcomes. I'm ready to see some happiness! I'm a single mom of two beautiful girls: Sarah, 9, and Lauren, 7. I'm a "Soccer Mom" and official scorekeeper for Sarah's baseball team. They keep me busy! I'm thrilled to be part of A.S.A. and look forward to helping fulfill people's dreams of becoming parents.

One Family's Story

The great gift of family life is to be intimately acquainted with people you might never even introduce yourself to, had life not done it for you. --Kendall Hailey

As many of you might already know, A.S.A. places babies with families who reside not only in the United States, but also in countries such as France, England, Belgium, Switzerland, and Mexico. In this month's segment, Ulf and Sabine from Germany have been so kind as to share their family's adoption journey with you…..a sincere thanks to both of them!

We are Ulf and Sabine from Germany, adoptive parents of three little children. We are thirty-five years old and our adoption journey started four years ago, when we had to learn that adopting kids in Germany is nearly impossible. So we decided to adopt children from a foreign country. Sabine's Mum's best friend is a doctor in Colombia. When she visited us here we asked her for help. Then we waited twenty months without any reaction to our application. In the meantime, we heard about A.S.A. Our friends who adopted two children with A.S.A. eight and six years ago told us to try an adoption in Texas because it will surely come to success. Last year in June we accepted our first A.S.A. case. We were excited and made a lot of plans. The baby should be delivered in October. Six weeks later our Colombian lawyer mailed us and proposed the adoption of Colombian twins.

We were shocked! Children had always been our dream, but three kids within three months? Would we be able to get along with that? It not, which case would be the right one? At last we decided to show courage and accept both offers. Ten days later we arrived in Bogata. With the help of the monastery and our lawyer, we received the twins, Jacob and Maria. Sabine had to stay for eight weeks in Colombia. Ulf returned to Germany and kept in touch with A.S.A When all the paperwork was done Sabine and the twins returned back home.

We immediately tried to prepare for our next journey. But, unfortunately, the birth mother decided to keep the baby. Of course we were disappointed, but reviewing the situation from today we know that God made the right decision for us.

Six weeks later A.S.A. offered us a new case which was due in April. After the first disappointment we were not sure what to do, but after two days we decided to take a risk again. But in vain. After four full months of telephone calls, packages, etc., the birthmother was sent to jail and her mother wanted to keep the baby. What luck to have our beautiful twins. We were so frustrated that we were thinking about giving up our plans with A.S.A. we were wondering if our financial and emotional capacity would be enough to go ahead. After a positive decision we asked A.S.A. to fasten the process and to shorten our waiting period.

One evening in August A.S.A. proposed a new situation. Both of us knew it would be our last case. Little Ricarda was already born and we only had to wait thirty days to pick her up. The horrible terror attacks in New York and Washington DC forced us to wait, but then we finally could travel to Texas. Of course the twins accompanied their parents to meet their little sister. Before, we had been a lucky family, but now we are complete - thank God.

Now we know it is true what our friends told us: It is hard to wait, but it will surely come to success. --Ulf and Sabine

The Heart of the Matter

I'd like to take just a few moments this month to quickly touch on a few important topics, rather than focusing on just one...

*Waiting families in A.S.A.'s "Parents-in-Partnership" program have two options in regard to ensuring that we have a supply of your profiles ready to be shown to birth parents: 1) A.S.A. is happy to take care of having your profile color copied using a local copy shop which does excellent work. There is not a "service" charge for this if you choose for us to handle the task for you, aside from the cost of color copies, which is directly passed to you and will be reflected on a monthly statement; the second option 2) is for you to make your own color copies when we run out of your profiles. If you choose to go this route, let us know and we will give you a quick telephone call or send an email message to alert you that the supply is running low. Its important that there is never a time when we don't have your profile on hand to present to a prospective birth family-this is a missed opportunity! If you have not already done so, please contact me or Kirsten to let us know your choice. Its important to keep in mind that the quality of the color copies is based on whether or not original photos are used to make copies. If you choose to allow the agency to handle copy-making for you, you must ensure that your original photos are available from which to make copies.

* Please remember that the agency's 1-800 number should be available for birth parents use; many of our birth parent clients make their initial telephone call to the agency from a pay phone, since they don't have a home telephone. Understandably, these telephone calls are absolutely crucial for the counseling staff to receive, so that the adoption planning information can be shared, which could directly impact your family if it results in an eventual placement! Feel free to reach the agency at (210) 699-6094, and help us keep the 1-800 line open for birth parents, as the last thing any of us would want a potential birth mother to be met with is a busy signal.

* Just a reminder to please keep the agency apprised of changes to your place of employment, work telephone number, or email address. Also, don't forget to let us know when you'll be out of pocket on vacation or away from home, so that we'll be aware of how to most quickly reach you in there's an urgent need to share some exciting baby news!

*After you've been placed with a baby and you're compiling your monthly reports for the agency, please avoid sending digital photographs that have been printed on paper other than archival-quality photo paper. Many of the papers available for digital photos will not withstand the test of time, and will fade and deteriorate in just a few years. If you're fortunate enough to have a digital camera and would like to send your digital photos, please have them printed at a photo lab, and be sure that they are at least 3x5" in size.

*I want to thank all of you who respond to the "Case Alerts" that we send out via email from time to time. As I 've discussed with many of you on recent occasions, this is not the conventional method A.S.A. utilizes to match birth parents and prospective adoptive parents, but it has become an exceptionally efficient tool for use in quickly matching cases that may be a somewhat complex and/or have characteristics which make them somewhat more challenging to match in a traditional manner. Your quick telephone and email response is greatly appreciated, and has enabled us to find a wonderful family for every precious baby available for adoption.

* Keep an eye out for Hallmark's new adoption series which premieres June 1st. We were alerted to this bit of news from a Florida adoption attorney. She says that Hallmark is presenting this series as " a new original series that will touch your heart and challenge the way you look at family, parenting, and childhood. Every week, follow the stories of real people as they seek to enrich their lives and fulfill their dreams through adoption". Sounds terrific!

Warm Regards,
Denise Garibay
Director of Social Services