We are hosting FOURTEEN Funding Love Birth Moms this September 6 - 10, 2023 at Coronado Springs Resort in Walt Disney World!
Meet them and read their stories below.
Tell us a bit about your story…
I was 15 and a sophomore in high school when I found out I was pregnant. After coming to terms with my inability to provide for her, I chose open adoption through Bethany Christian Services in 1995. Throughout her life, her adoptive parents have always honored and respected me as her birth mother. I am forever grateful that I was able to be there and support her for many of her life moments. I am so very proud of the woman that she is and now the mother she is becoming. She blessed me in 2021 and 2022 with two grandbabies that gave me a new title "Bachan".
What are you MOST excited about for your Funding Love Vacation?
Being able to me my authentic self with others and feel safe doing so. Also to reset mentally to be a better mom and wife.
Tell us a little bit about your story…
I was in a dangerous situation and decided it would be best for my child to place him for adoption and get him out of the situation. I was able to place him in an open adoption and still to this day am involved in his life. It took me 18 years to find any adoption support systems with other birth moms. Thank you for allowing this unique experience to be a part of my story.
What are you MOST excited about for your Funding Love Vacation?
Meeting other birth moms.
Tell us a little bit about your story…
When I first placed my daughter I would have never imagined I’d find such an amazing and supportive community of birth mothers. It’s been a long journey and I’ll never stop learning but I would not be the person I am today had I continued to close myself off and think I can get through this without being in community with other birth parents. Community changed my life, it’s as simple and profound as that.
What are you MOST excited about for your Funding Love Vacation?
I’m looking forward to meeting other birth moms and learning from them. The knowledge and perspective I gain from listening to them share their stories is invaluable to me. No one knows loss quite like a birth mother does and in order to best support this community I must listen and learn as much as I can. Every experience is different and you can never stop learning.
Tell us a little bit about your story…
I placed my son for adoption 8 years ago, when I was 19 years old. I knew I wasn’t in a position to raise him and give him the kind of life he deserved, and it was made clear to me that parenting wasn’t an option. I was afraid to place him with a family that I didn’t know, but when a family member happened to share a profile of a couple she knew personally looking to adopt, everything fell into place. I met with them multiple times throughout my pregnancy, and they always made me feel reassured and secure, given the circumstances. I love the relationship I have with his parents. We have stayed in close contact over the years, and I have sent gifts and letters for birthdays/holidays. I’m grateful that they’ve allowed me to stay present in his life in this way, and I’m looking forward to reuniting with my birth son whenever he is ready. It was absolutely the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever done, and it feels so shameful and isolating at times. But knowing how loved and well taken care of he is helps with the sting of it.
What are you MOST excited about for your Funding Love Vacation?
Connecting with other amazing women who understand what it’s like to go through something as difficult as placing a child for adoption, and having a completely stress free, fun time!
Tell us a little bit of your story…
I found myself pregnant at 15. I was scared and had no idea how I would raise this baby girl. My family offered an abortion, but I knew that’s not a decision I could make. They then said I would be doing an adoption plan. They sent me to a maternity home to be connected to an agency to complete the adoption. A few months in they decided they had found a family for me to place with and they introduced me to this new family on my 16th birthday. My daughter was born a few months later and I didn’t know it then but I wouldn’t see her again until she was 17. I’m not sure how to describe the years in between the day they pulled out of the hospital parking lot and the day I pulled in her driveway to meet again for the first time. There was so much pain and longing and literal soul aching to just know my daughter. To hear her voice and her laugh. To get to see her grow up. So much time had been lost, but I was also so thankful for the opportunity to start to get to know her. Our visit was short but sweet and I’ll be forever thankful. She will be 18 next year and is simply extraordinary.
What are you MOST excited about for your Funding Love Vacation?
I’m most looking forward to making some forever friends. Friends that truly “get it”. I’m also excited to be carefree and almost childlike in this experience that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to have.
Tell us a little bit of your story…
I was 15 years old having a baby and was not financially stable to take care of a baby and I wanted her to have a good life and made the decision to do adoption and so far it’s been the best. I love the adoptive parents, they are so kind and great to the both of us and I love that for us.
What are you MOST excited about for your Funding Love Vacation?
The thing I’m most looking forward to about this trip is being around new people, and just getting to experience Walt Disney World for the first time ever.
Tell us a little bit of your story…
I placed in February of 2019 to an amazing family with lots of love for not only my daughter but for myself and my family. She is my second child and they are exactly 23 month apart. We have grown to have a very close relationship.
What are you MOST excited about for your Funding Love Vacation?
Connecting with other birth moms in the most magical place!
Tell us a little bit of your story…
I am navigating an open adoption with the most amazing family! I placed my son for adoption when I was 14 and we have since been pouring into this relationship. Now that I am parenting my children, I have had to face what it was that I actually gave up when I placed my son for adoption. Watching my son grow up in waves and pictures and visits has been amazing, but seeing my children grow right in front of my eyes has been both amazing and a realization that I missed all of that with my first. I am forever thankful to the parents who chose to walk this path of adoption with me. Keeping the adoption open and keeping me at the forefront of their story and allowing their son to know me has made all the difference in the world!
What are you MOST excited about for your Funding Love Vacation?
Meeting other birth moms and hopefully making connections that will last outside of the trip.
Tell us a little bit of your story…
At the age of 17, I placed my daughter into a closed adoption in 1995. We were reunited 10 years ago after her family decided to locate me and make contact. I am grateful every day that our reunion found her happy and loved, and that I have been able to get to meet her and learn that she has my laugh and my smile. The last 10 years have been a roller coaster ride for sure as I have had to come face to face with the many emotions that I buried for 18 years without any post-placement support, and learn how to figure out how I fit into her life where there really wasn't a place for me organically. But I have been lucky enough to have met some amazing birth moms over the years that I now call my sisters. They have been absolutely instrumental in helping me as I have learned to navigate the ups and downs of my story. The women I have met have also allowed me to serve them by simply giving my ear to listen and understand what they are experiencing. My relationship with my daughter is tricky at times, to know where I fit in, but overall, its good and I savor every opportunity I get to talk to her and learn more about her life. She is expecting her first baby soon, so this has opened a whole new set of opportunity to try to build a relationship with yet another person in this reunion.
I am very grateful for organizations like Funding Love that see how invaluable it is to have a community that provides acceptance and love in a circle of people that know what you are going through. It has absolutely saved me. Thank you to infinity and beyond (see what I did there) for this opportunity! :)
What are you MOST excited about for your Funding Love Vacation?
I am really looking forward to meeting new birth moms and the leaders of Funding Love who put this together. Obviously, I am looking forward to experiencing Walt Disney World but for as many times as I have been to Disneyland, I know that my best days there have been about who I am with. I can’t wait to experience the most magical place on earth with this hand-picked group of ladies.
Tell us a little bit of your story…
So for me my story is a little different from everyone else. The day I found out I was pregnant, 14 hours later I was having a baby boy who was 41 weeks along. I knew I had to make a decision fast because of my circumstances, and I chose adoption. I did get to choose his family and they are local, so visits, updates and communication are always happening. They did just inform me though, after 3 years, that they are moving out of state and I will have to learn how to navigate things now. They say we will still have visits and photos and updates, so fingers crossed on the future.
What are you MOST excited about for your Funding Love Vacation?
To build new connections and friendships.
Tell us a little bit of your story…
I found out I was pregnant at just 16 years old, the summer between my sophomore and junior years of high school. I stepped into the unknown waters of open adoption without much of a framework or other adoption experiences to model it after. My son turned 20 this year; the past two decades have been a long road. Through all of it, the love for my firstborn son and his well-being have been at the front of my motivations and decisions. Today, my son and I are in reunion and learning how to navigate our relationship as he grows and matures into a young man and makes room in his life and family constellation for his birth family. I am so grateful for my beloved husband and the three precious little boys I do get to parent now. The joy I have found with all four of my sons has been worth everything.
What are you MOST excited about for your Funding Love Vacation?
I just love connecting and hearing peoples’ stories. My prayer is that other birth moms can find hope and encouragement through my experience and vice versa.
Tell us a little bit of your story…
Adoption has been a major part of my life. I am an adoptee that was adopted from foster care at the age of 3. When I was faced with an unplanned pregnancy at 20, adoption was a feasible option, but I knew my own adoption came with so many mixed feelings and emotions. Did I really think I could go that path for my son? I was conflicted because I was an adult. I did have a roof over my head, I did have a job, and I could parent. But was I really prepared for that? Ultimately choosing adoption was the best and hardest decision of my life. I could give my son all the love in the world, but his adoptive family ultimately provides everything else I could have imagined for my son. We have navigated our open adoption for almost 9 years now, and it has been exactly what I hoped for in making an adoption plan. He has grown up with the life I hoped he would have and I have been able to continue becoming the person I want to become while remaining in his life and getting to love on him and his family. Adoption has changed my life forever and even on the hard days, I am so proud to be my son's birth mom.
What are you MOST excited about for your Funding Love Vacation?
Connection with other birth moms is what I'm most looking forward to! But I am also very excited about being able to experience Walt Disney World and getting to just have fun and give myself some self-love on this trip!
Tell us a little bit of your story…
I have an open adoption and my birth daughter is 6 . I get to see her a couple times a year, and I talk to her adoptive parents almost everyday. They send me pictures and videos all the time and we video chat.
What are you MOST excited about for your Funding Love Vacation?
Meeting new birth moms and hearing different stories.
Tell us a little bit of your story…
Having been born in Colombia and having seen my single mother struggle to give me a better life in America, I knew I only owed my son that better life as well. It was unexpected and I was dealing with workers comp for a pinched nerve at the same time, so my physical and mental health were not well. After much crying, and fear of having to bring this little being into my broken world, adoption was mentioned to me. It’s not a common thing amongst my culture, so I was unsure but I promised my son a better life, and I wasn’t about to fail him.
I met his parents through a close relative and while they were much older than I had expected, they had life together and I felt would be the best option for my son.
He will be 10 this year, and while my adoption journey has been an estranged and painful one, there has never been a regret in my heart. I would do it all over again to make sure he has what’s best.
What are you MOST excited about for your Funding Love Vacation?
Getting the chance to meet women and people that understand my pain and are able to help guide me to a healthier view and acceptance of this journey, to hopefully give me the courage to be the birth mother my son needs.