Inspire, Fall 2004

Inspire 29 Curtis ’83 and Carol Stoltzfus Hoke ’82 Any couple who has experienced infertility knows what an emotional roller coaster it can be. Often, this is also the case with the adoption process, although we expected more of it due to our unique position of bringing a disability into parenting. Curtis was injured in a diving accident two months after he graduated from Cedarville, leaving him a C-5 quadriplegic. … Our big question was whether any birth mother would choose for her child an adoptive couple with a disability. Mary Beth ’91 and Michelle Plunkitt ’93 At our home, babies come by airplane. Just ask my son, Michael (5), and he will tell you that Baby Katie came on the same airplane as him even though it was more than four and half years later. It was with overwhelming love that Michael and Katie joined our family through adoption. It had always been my dream to build a family through adoption. Armed with research, passion, and determination, both my sister and I entered into this wonderful adventure as mothers together. Tiffany Sears ’99 My dad and mom, Chuck and Jeanne Sears, have been parenting children for more than 30 years. They adopted their first child, Laure, a Chinese girl from an orphanage in Taiwan, when my dad was stationed there as a C-130 pilot during the Vietnam War. Then they had five children of their own — Eric, Tiffany, Jeffrey, Jenny, and Andrew. … Mom and Dad then had a lengthy meeting with the orphanage director, the social worker, some of the orphanage workers, and a government official from the department of education. They were asked many questions — the favorite one being, “Are you sure you want six?” John ’97 and Kelly Purdy Linak ’97 We stand in awe of God’s goodness to us on a daily basis as we see our children and we are reminded of what miracles they truly are. Zoe, who doesn’t physically share our DNA, is our daughter through and through in every other way, and Jackson, a “medical impossibility,” proves that God is greater than modern medicine and infertility. Both of them are precious gifts from God and have His fingerprints all over them. Mitchel and Dianna Snyder Moyer ’85 As we made plans to bring the little girl home we got word that the birth mom had changed her mind five days into the 10-day required waiting period in Georgia. We were heartbroken, and I cried to God once again, but this time trusting Him. … A week later we received another call from our agency about a birth mom who was due in about three months. She had been on crack cocaine but was currently clean and in a Christian maternity home. She was carrying a little girl who was biracial; were we interested? We emphatically said yes! Kevin ’84 and Jennifer Stork Brueilly ’84 Because we had been in the process of the Chinese adoption, we had a valid homestudy already performed, an attorney on call, and a nursery already set up. Our attorney visited the birth mother in the hospital and called Kevin back that evening and said everything was “good to go.” Jennifer was in Cincinnati visiting relatives when she received the call from Kevin that she was going to be a mother — tomorrow!