A Nashville couple is sharing the story of how they came to adopt their daughter, who has severe disabilities. Folk and country singer-songwriter Sean McConnell has written for superstars like Tim McGraw, Martina McBride, Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley, and others. He’s been nominated for a Grammy award for his song “Daughters,” which was performed by Little Big Town. But one of his greatest accomplishments is being a father.

In a profile by the Tennessean, McConnell and his wife, Mary Susan, shared the story of how they adopted their daughter internationally. They had decided to adopt from Ghana, a country in western Africa, but struggled over the notion of accepting a child with disabilities.

Simone Biles, World Champion and Olympic gold medal gymnast, made history on May 22, 2021, when she became the first woman in history to land a Yurchenko double pike vault. The 24-year-old American gymnast competed at the U.S. Classic in Indianapolis on Saturday, landing the difficult move and walking away with the all-around title. Saturday also marked Biles’ first competition since October of 2019.

The Yurchenko double pike has a 6.6 difficulty score and required Biles to sprint down a runway, perform a roundoff onto a takeoff board, execute a back handspring with a half-twist onto a vault, double somersault off the vault, and land in a piked position.

Linda Owens, a 78-year-old retired human resources manager from Hayward, California, has served as a foster mother to 81 infants over the last 34 years. “What I do comes from my heart for every fragile infant who needs a good start in life,” Owens said, according to a report by the Washington Post.

Her first foster baby came to her in 1987 from Alameda County Department of Children and Family Services in Northern California. Since then, she has taken in several newborns each year. Often, the infants have been exposed to drugs in their mothers’ wombs, so they remain with Owens under court orders until a judge determines they can be reunited with their parents or they are adopted.

Juan and Judith Arguello always wanted five children. After having two biological children of their own, Mariano and Judith, the couple decided to work with the organization Toward Maximum Independence (TMI), which places children with disabilities with foster and forever families. Now the couple has adopted two daughters with developmental disabilities through that program, and hope to soon adopt a son.

In 2016, the couple began their foster care journey and took in Akilah, now 10. They fell in love with her right away, and were able to adopt her. Then, in 2018, they fostered Lily, age 14. Her adoption was finalized in 2020.

For the McGarritys, adopting children with Down syndrome has felt like a calling, and a profound joy — so much so that they are parents of eight, including four children with Down syndrome.

Jeff and Sonia McGarrity met in Washington, D.C., in 2001. After the birth of their first two sons, Thomas and Sean, the couple had no indication during pregnancy that their third son would be any different. But after the midwife delivered their third child, Jeffrey, they learned that he had Down syndrome.

Many parents react to such news with shock, fear, or trepidation, but the couple took the news in stride.

A woman abandoned on someone’s doorstep nearly 30 years ago is seeking answers from her mother.

Aniya Smith, who now lives in California, was found at the Riviera Parkway Apartments in Jacksonville, Florida, on January 11, 1992. It was cold and rainy when she was discovered at 5:30 in the morning by the woman living there. Police were called, and she was given the name Baby Jane Doe.

“It’s like an empty feeling that you feel,” Smith told First Coast News. “You just don’t know who you are.”

Now at age 29 and with two children of her own, Smith is trying to find out who her biological mother is and get answers.

A video showing how Safe Haven Baby Boxes work posted on TikTok has racked up nearly 20 million views. Monica Kelsey, who founded the non-profit, is a firefighter and paramedic who was abandoned as an infant. Through the Safe Haven Baby Boxes TikTok account, Kelsey has been sharing videos to spread awareness of not only the baby boxes themselves, but how they work as well.

Using a doll, Kelsey walked viewers through the process from beginning to end. A mother would approach the baby box, which is typically located at a safe location, like a fire department or hospital. “When a parent walks up to one of our Safe Haven Baby Boxes all they have to do is open the door, place their child inside, take the orange bag, shut the door and walk away,” she explained.

A couple in Florida has welcomed a baby boy in February whom they adopted as an embryo. Baby Noah had been frozen as an embryo for 15 years and was donated to an embryo adoption agency. He was then adopted by Amanda and Jeremy Lewand.

The couple had struggled with fertility issues and decided to adopt an embryo after four years of attempting to conceive. They are hoping to inspire other couples who are dealing with similar fertility struggles.

“It was all worth it,” said Amanda. “After going through infertility, we had longed for a child so bad.”

Unbeknownst to the couple, Noah had been waiting for them for 15 years.

Pam and Gary Willis were already parents to five children and grandparents to six when they chose to step in and help a group of seven siblings who needed them.

In 2019, Pam read a story about seven children who were in need of a new, permanent home. They had been in foster care for more than a year after losing both of their parents in a car accident, according to FaithPot. The children were separated in different foster homes during that time and Pam felt the calling to do something to help.

“I can’t explain it — I just knew I was supposed to be their mom,” she said.

The Virginia Catholic Conference expressed alarm at the bill’s passage, warning that removing the conscience protections could threaten the work of the state’s Catholic adoption and foster care agencies by allowing the state to deny them licenses, grants, or contracts.

For many people, the draw of the Super Bowl isn’t the game itself, but the commercials. Each year, companies pay millions of dollars to have their ads featured during the big game, in the hope of getting attention from the hundreds of millions of people watching. This year, there was one ad in particular that has gotten people talking: the story of Paralympic champion Jessica Long.

Toyota, which sponsors the Paralympic Games, titled the ad “Upstream.” Interspersed between shots of Long swimming through images of her life was audio from an adoption specialist who calls with what she frames as bad news for Long’s mother.

In just over three years, Maxine and Jake Young have gone from having no children to having nine. After suffering two miscarriages and facing a polycystic ovarian syndrome diagnosis, the couple decided to pursue adoption through foster care. From there everything changed — quickly.

“We didn’t plan to have this large of a family,” Maxine told PEOPLE (the TV Show!). “But it just seems like these babies are meant to be.”

Maxine said she had always wanted to foster and adopt, and she and Jake discussed the idea even before they got married and suffered miscarriages. In July of 2017, the couple welcomed three siblings from foster care into their home and family.

The diocese encourages counseling for those distressed or confused by their sexual identity, and it expects that its counselors “hold a correct Christian anthropology of the human person and understand and adhere to Catholic teaching.”

St. Joseph is seen as a powerful intercessor for anyone currently pursuing an adoption.

Prayer to St. Joseph for those seeking an adoption

Brian Zach and his family offer a new life to young girl abused by her carers.

Police officer adopts little girl he cared for while on duty

(Save The Storks) When it comes to unplanned pregnancy, the most common choices for U.S. women are abortion or parenting.    

But there is a third option, one that is often left out of the conversation when discussing reproductive rights – adoption. In fact, less than 4 percent of unplanned pregnancies result in adoption. 

The bottom line?  According to a piece from Olga Khazan in The Atlantic, historically “among American women for whom carrying a child to term would be safe, adoption is a remarkably unpopular course of action.”  

So why is adoption not seen as a viable option? 

Each year, millions of families hope to adopt a baby in the United States. According to the Adoption Network, just 135,000 children are adopted each year, while an estimated one to two million families are waiting to adopt. But there are numerous obstacles in the way when it comes to building a family through adoption. The United States Child Welfare Information Gateway estimates that families will pay between $20,000 and $45,000 for a domestic adoption, with international adoptions costing even more. It can take years to complete the process, including legal requirements like a home study, and matching with a mother considering adoption.

A teenage birth mom’s video message to her newborn son, whom she was placing for adoption, has gone viral years after her story first became public knowledge. Hannah Mongie, 19 at the time, shared her pro-life message to the world in a separate video that detailed why she chose life and how she was conflicted on whether or not to choose adoption.

Since that time, Mongie has been invited to talk shows, including The TODAY Show with Megan Kelly, where she and her son along with his adoptive parents, Brad and Emily Marsh, shared their beautiful story. By filming her message to her son, Mongie shared with the world all of the emotions that birth mothers go through when placing a child for adoption.

Celebrity hairstylist Justin Anderson, alum of the reality TV show “Very Cavallari” with Kristen Cavallari, recently opened up during a podcast about placing his son with an adoptive family in an open adoption when he was in college. Anderson, now 40, and his high school sweetheart Debbie, became pregnant during Anderson’s freshman year of college.

On the December 15th episode of the “Scissoring Isn’t A Thing” podcast, Anderson recalled, “When I went to college, she came to visit me one time… and she got pregnant. I come from one of those families that, obviously, the religious stuff, and her the same thing, so there’s no talk of abortion and all that kind of stuff — we’re going to have the baby.