Expectant mothers who are looking to put a baby up for adoption need to be matched with prospective parents and many are wondering "how do I place my baby for adoption?"
The first stop on our journey to get the word out that we are looking to adopt a baby and match with an expectant mother, was our trip to Richfield. This is our first official adoption trip on our adoption journey. Once an expectant mother is matched the details are then worked out to place the baby.
Our first selected location was an area that starts about two hours South of us and went in a horseshoe shape. It included towns like Richfield, Gunnison, Levan, Salina, and a few others in Utah. We started this trip by driving straight to Richfield, getting checked into our hotel, and meeting up with an old and dear friend, Lance.
April is cutting out our adoption fliers and prepping them to put up. These fliers will help mothers who are looking to place their baby for adoption match with us as a potential couple.
I worked with Lance many years ago and had always respected, looked up to, and loved him and his family. We were able to visit for several hours in the lobby of the hotel, where we discussed each other's family updates and all that had happened since we last saw each other. It was such a great evening! I was able to introduce April to Lance and share some of our journey with him. Lance and his wife Stacey were so caring and supportive! They took a bunch of our pass-along cards to hand out and also made calls to people they knew in the area that could possibly help us in spreading our search to be matched with an expectant mother.
Lance, April, Dave, and Cade at his manufacturing facility
The next morning we started out on our mission to get the word out. We stopped off to see Lance's work and take an official tour. It was so cool to see all the stuff they were doing and be able to share a manufacturing process with April. She really loved it.
Pounding the Pavement
Once we finished visiting with Lance, we headed out. We placed our fliers in Ace Hardware, Wal-Mart, a grocery store in Richfield, a NAPA Auto Parts store that had a community bulletin board, with the IHC hospital in Richfield, and many other stores and locations. April was a total rock-star! She was fearless as she talked with people and handed them our cards or asked to hang our tear-off fliers. We spent a good chunk of the day in Richfield, and headed out to Salina that afternoon to grab an early dinner. We ate at a famous little place called "Mom's Cafe." They had REALLY good scones with raspberry butter! YUM!!!
We hit a few other towns on our way back home and had two other noteworthy experiences:
Things to Remember
The first was when we went to the hospital in Gunnison, Utah. We were going to place our flier in the Labor and Delivery ward since Utah has a "Safe Haven Law." This law makes the hospital a safe place where women can deliver a baby, and if they are unable to keep it they can leave it at the hospital so the baby can be taken care of and adopted. Keep in mind, it was an early Saturday evening, say around 6:30pm. We walked into the hospital and it was completely empty...not a soul in sight! The front desk, the main area, the gift shop, all empty. No patients, no staff, no visitors... We walked back to Labor and Delivery and had the same experience. It was like something out of a science fiction movie where aliens had taken all the people and left the hospital with no one left in the building. All the lights were on, the machines and equipment on, but no people. We decided to hang up our flier in L&D and we left. It was comical and kind of creepy! We never did see one individual other than a person that left right as we pulled up.
The second was visiting a friend and co-worker Nate. We stopped off at his house that was being built and got to see his geese and chickens. The geese were the best! They acted like they believed we were part of their gaggle. They followed us from the back yard to the front and starting eating their favorite treat of grass as we talked. We finished and headed back towards the car. All of the sudden the geese realized they were being left behind and flew/ran to catch up to us! Nate told the two geese to head into the backyard and they ran off past the fence into the back-yard as we headed to the car. It was both fun and amazing to watch.
In addition, April and I were able to hold some chickens, which was a first for both of us. Nate lives in a small town that is very peaceful and beautiful. April and I both commented on how it would be nice to retire in a place like this.
The final stop before home was an ice-cream shop in Nephi. The ice cream was just ok, but it was a fun way to celebrate our first successful trip!
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