Meet Marlene
donor and adopted person
When people ask me why my family and I give to Children’s Home Society & Family Services, the answer is quite simple. “Well, it's where I came from years ago.”
I was adopted through CHSFS by William and Virginia Hager in the late 1930s. Their eldest son, William, was also adopted, and they had a birth son named George. They were ready to welcome another child into their home.
My mother was a volunteer at CHSFS even before she and my father decided to adopt. When they considered adopting a second child, the director of the orphanage steered them toward me, thinking I would be a wonderful addition to the Hager family. My mother agreed.
Mother brought my father to the orphanage to meet this baby girl and hopefully get the adoption process underway. Magic happened when he walked through the nursery, not knowing which child they were adopting. When he passed by my crib, I stood up held my arms out to him. He knew right then that I was to be their baby. And I completed their family.
My mother continued her involvement with CHSFS throughout my childhood. In fact, I remember visiting the orphanage with mother and my brothers to deliver clothing, fruit and gifts for the children at Christmas. To this day I support the work of CHSFS because I know that CHSFS helps children, just like me, find their forever families.
Meet Teresa & RJ
adoptive parents and donors
Before we were married we talked about our future family. In high school, RJ studied the social impact of China’s one child policy and the tragic outcome it had on many female newborns. Ever since then, it was a goal of his to someday adopt a child who needed a home. Together we decided that if we did adopt it would be an international adoption.
In December of 1997, our birth daughter Gracie was born. About one year later, we started the adoption process through Children’s Home Society & Family Services. For various reasons we decided to adopt a Korean daughter and in January of 2000 we brought Clare home from Seoul. At that point in time we thought our family was complete.
As ardent supporters of adoption, we’ve become very involved with various fundraising efforts at CHSFS. We learned about the Ethiopia program and were drawn to it, but we weren’t necessarily ready to expand our family.
However, early in 2007 we viewed the articles on Waiting International Children on the CHSFS Web site and immediately fell in love with a little 2-year-old girl who had a very difficult start in life. There was no question, we needed her and we hoped she needed us. Six months later the four of us traveled to Addis Ababa to pick up our 2-year-old daughter Aster!
All three of our children have brought such joy to our lives and blessed us many times over. We hope that we are raising children who will take our efforts even further as they grow and will someday see a world with much less poverty and much more peace.
We continue to help raise money and awareness for all of the CHSFS adoption programs because we truly believe that adoption should never be viewed as a second choice, but rather as a wonderful way to build a family. Our lives have been enriched through the celebrations and greater awareness of different cultures and values. We have truly become a global family.
