Made to Mother

Stories by Moms About Motherhood from Across the Mother Spectrum

  • About M2M
  • About Wynter
  • Buy the Book!
  • Order M2M Swag

National Adoption Month Series – A Gift of Hope Adoptions

November 6, 2014

Happy Adoption Month! My name is Elizabeth and I’m so honored to be sharing about adoption on M2M; it has been a passion of mine since I was a kid. I had always planned to work in adoption in some capacity, but when I was doing my internships at adoption agencies in graduate school, I got very disenchanted with the process. The agencies were so careful to remain neutral about adoption that they ended up promoting parenting over adoption most of the time. Don’t get me wrong, I know adoption is not the right choice for every person experiencing a crisis pregnancy or even a crisis in their lives that requires them to evaluate options for their children, but I firmly believe that it is the right choice for some. In any case, people deserve to know that it is an option, and what adoption is really like in the 21st century.

After grad school my job options were limited given the economy, so I got together with my dad, Dewey Crepeau, and Tina Tyra, an adoption facilitator in California. We decided that an agency could provide more services than our separate areas of expertise and combined forces. Out of that meeting A Gift of Hope Adoptions was born, and we have been going strong for nearly ten years! We have been able to provide the social services necessary to a good adoption experience for both birth parents and adoptive parents. With Dewey’s invaluable legal expertise ensuring that adoptions are always done the right way and Tina’s experience in matching and making sure prospective birth parents have choices in the adoptive family they select, I believe our agency has the keys to healthy adoptions.

AGOHA_logo_new_R_web

I think as parents, particularly as mothers, we know that our primary focus has to be on our children. We are constantly evaluating their personality, interests, and learning styles in decisions about school, diet, social activities, and extra-curricular activities. Sometimes we grieve that we can’t give them more, and sometimes make hard sacrifices to do so. We celebrate with our child as they succeed and we help them learn from their failures. Often, we are blamed for everything but still bring out the lioness inside when our children need protection. We are mothers, it’s what we do.

I take that approach with adoption, as well. Even though we work with all members of the adoption triad (birth parents, adoptive parents, and children) our focus has to be on the child’s best interests. The child is not paying for the services, and the child is not making the decisions, but the child is still our primary client. When you are considering adoption – whether as a birth parent or an adoptive parent – I encourage you to attempt to put yourself in your child’s position, and evaluate best interests from there. That may lead to some tough introspection, and even tougher choices. You may find that your child’s best interests make your choices clearer or cloudier. Every child needs a mother, though, and they deserve our best. In adoption a child has more than one mother, and that is actually a very good thing. As I often say to our clients, particularly those who are afraid of contact between birth and adoptive families (which is actually now very common and very healthy in adoption), you can never have too many people who love your child.

If you would like more information on adoption services through A Gift of Hope Adoptions feel free to contact us through our website or call 573-356-0025 or toll-free 1-888-564-HOPE. We work nationwide! You can also follow us on social media: Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

~~~~~

Elizabeth Ehlen graduated from Hillsdale College in 2002 with a dual degree in History and Sociology & Social Thought, with special departmental honors in Sociology. She attended Washington University in St. Louis to pursue her Master’s in Social Work and graduated from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work in 2004 with a MSW, concentrating in Children, Youth and Family. In 2005, Elizabeth cofounded A Gift of Hope Adoptions in Missouri with the help of Dewey Crepeau, and Tina Tyra.

In addition to her adoption work, she has also written an ebook designed as an introduction to adoption for adoptive parents, Adoption Options: For Prospective Adoptive Parents. She is married to her college sweetheart, Matt Ehlen and they have two sons, David and Daniel, and one daughter, Rachelle. Elizabeth loves being a mommy, and works primarily from her home office in order to take care of her babies as well as her children through A Gift of Hope Adoptions.

giftofhope

Share this:

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest

3 Comments Filed Under: Adoption, Adoption Month, Guest Post, Motherhood Tagged With: adoption, adoption agency, Adoption Month, children, Family, Home, love, marriage, mom, mother, motherhood, mothering, National Adoption Awareness month, national adoption month, Parent, story, woman

Comments

  1. christinamorley says

    November 6, 2014 at 11:42 pm

    Thanks for sharing this lovely story and the links. I popped in from the blog hops. I’ve had a heart for adoption for most of my life, but it hasn’t happened for us yet. We’ve got four kids and we still pray about adopting one. Tina – American mom, missionary in South Africa, and author of several blogs including Amanda’s Books and More and Happy Moms, Happy Homes

    Reply
  2. Brittany at EquippingGodlyWomen.com says

    November 12, 2014 at 6:28 pm

    That is awesome that you have a chance to help people in this way! I can’t wait until I can get involved in the foster/adoption system someday. It might be a while still, but I would count down the days if I knew how many!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. A Gift of Hope Adoptions » Guest Post on Made to Mother says:
    November 8, 2014 at 2:19 pm

    […] I am very excited to guest post for Made to Mother’s National Adoption Month series. For those of you who don’t follow […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter

Hi! I'm Wynter. Wife to Jonathan and mama to Chloe, Adaya and Liam. I am a writer, artist, MarCom professional, freelance editor, and an avid gardener, TV lover and chocolate-covered cherries addict. Come back here each week for new, powerful stories of motherhood from real moms across the mother spectrum. Read More…

Subscribe to M2M

Never miss a M2M story ever again! Sign up to receive M2M posts directly to your inbox.

Search M2M Stories

Categories

  • A Dad's Story
  • Abortion
  • Adoptee
  • Adoption
  • Adoption Month
  • Birth Mother
  • Blogging
  • Book Review
  • Breastfeeding
  • Child Loss
  • Childcare/Nanny
  • Childless by Choice
  • Christian Living
  • Christmas
  • College
  • Conference
  • Diagnosis
  • Divorce
  • eBook Bundle
  • Father Tributes
  • Foster Mom
  • Friendship
  • Giveaway
  • Grandmother
  • Guest Post
  • Homemaking
  • Infertility
  • International Mothering
  • Jail
  • Life Coach
  • Link Up
  • Made to Mother Book
  • Mentor
  • Miscarriage
  • Motherhood
  • Motherhood Vignettes
  • Movie Review
  • Moving w Kids Successfully
  • NonChristian
  • NonProfit Spotlight
  • Parenting
  • Pet Mom
  • Pregnancy
  • Product Review
  • Recipe
  • Season of Giving: Countdown to Christmas
  • Single Mom
  • Special Needs
  • Sponsored Post
  • Stay at Home Mom
  • Stepmother
  • Teacher
  • Teen Mom
  • Teen Pregnancy
  • teenagers
  • Trauma
  • Uncategorized
  • womanhood
  • Working Mom
  • Wynter

Recent Posts

  • Reflecting on a New Year
  • NEW M2M Swag Now available!
  • Today is the Day of Salvation: Don’t Put it Off Any Longer!
  • The COVID Family’s Guide to Deep Cleaning a Kitchen
  • We LEARN to Mother – Vaishnavi’s Story
Got a Story to Share? Contact me at wynter@madetomother.com

Top Posts & Pages

  • God is in Control of Your Family Size; You Just Have to Obey - An Unnamed Mother’s Story
  • 8 Life Skills that Science Teaches Children - Guest Post by Marcus from PsySci.co
  • About M2M
  • The Dangers of Teenage Travel #MakeSafeTravelHappen – The Tyler Madoff Story
  • I Trust You, Jesus, and My Hope is in You
  • 6 Road Trip Car Games to Play with Your Kids
  • How a Father Teaches His Son to Treat Women - Guest post by Wesley from iManscape
  • 6 Easy Tips for Brightening Up a Dark Room - Guest Post

Copyright © 2023 Made to Mother · All Rights Reserved
Theme designed by Restored 316 · Hosting provided by SiteGround

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.