Selecting an adoption agency to work alongside you is a huge decision. The best way to select the agency that is right for your family is to talk to others who have been through the adoption process before. We have included these family stories to help you do just that. You can read about some of the amazing families that we have been privileged to assist in adopting children form all over the world. What's more, you can even sort by families based on those whose circumstances or families resemble yours. Sort by state, by adoptive country, and other criteria.

We want to be clear, these families were fantastic families before they ever interacted with America World, so we can't really boast that we made them better. On the contrary, these wonderful families listed here (and many more who we don't have listed) have made us a better agency. The opportunity to assist them, share with them our experience and sharpen our skills in facilitating adoptions was an honor. The fact that they are willing to share their stories here is a honor to us and we are convinced will be a touching to you as you read and learn about their individual and unique adoption journeys.

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The Casey Family Our family’s adoption story begins long before our adopted daughter was ever born. Many years ago, when we were missionaries in Bulgaria, we had the opportunity to visit an orphanage filled with hopeless toddlers. Our team of missionaries was overwhelmed not only by the destitution in which these orphans... More	The Burton Family For us, the story of the way God built our family is an example of how what He desires to do for us often exceeds even our wildest dreams and expectations. Our story begins much like many others. We were fairly newly married, and after almost 2 years of trying to conceive, found ourselves in the middle... More
The Davis Family It was July 2004, and my husband, Mike, and I were driving from where we lived near Cincinnati (Northern Kentucky) to visit family in Oklahoma. In the back were Anna, Landon, and Avery, our three children, who were 9, 5, and 1 at the time. We had planned on driving about halfway, which would be St. Louis,... More	The Reynolds Family We had thought about adoption over the years, but had never pursued it. One day I heard an advertisement on the radio for a Spirit of Adoption seminar that America World was having in our area. I told my wife about it and we decided to go and check it out. Our 3 (biological) sons were 11-, 13- and 15-years-old... More
The Markmiller Family To this day, Jenny and I disagree over the details of our first “what if...” conversation about adopting. Were we at the park, or at AAA? In Los Angeles or Boston? Regardless of where, we both strongly felt, even before marriage, that one day the Lord wanted us to adopt a little girl from China. After... More	The Baity Family “Hold that plane!”I felt like I was in the middle of a movie scene as my husband, four-year-old daughter, and I dashed through Detroit International Airport to make our flight to Beijing via Tokyo on November 16, 2006.“Hurry, hurry!” I kept yelling back to my good friend Heather, who was lagging behind.... More
The Mathis Family While engaged to be married during our college years (the late 1980s), Gary and I (Sandra) took our youth group to hear Josh McDowell speak. I remember nothing about that evening except Josh introducing his children to all who were present. He spoke with such love and admiration for his daughter who... More	The Chann Family When my daughter, Aubrey, was born in April of 2002, little did I know that her "little" brother was about to be born in June, 2002, halfway around the world in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Almost 2 years later, we began the journey to find this little boy and bring him home. After Aubrey's first birthday, my husband,... More
The Tweeten Family We began our adoption journey long before we even got married. God placed a desire in Duane’s heart to adopt a little girl from China. We discussed adoption on and off throughout our first 13 years of marriage. In August, 2004, God really laid it on our hearts, and we felt Him saying this was His timing... More	The McMillan Family Each family’s adoption story is specific to their circumstances; ours is no different. Although each is unique, there does seem to be a common theme among all adoptions: God has a specific child for each family, and He leads the family to that child. We have three beautiful biological daughters; they... More
The Van Grinsven Family We are John and Mary Jo, and we live in Wisconsin. We are more than happy to share our three adoption stories. John and I were married in 1994. After several years of marriage trying to have children, we rode the rollercoaster of infertility treatments, of hopes and disappointments, and then both finally... More	The Root Family We were content with our crazy family of five. Despite struggling with infertility, Jason and I had three amazing children. But after our third miracle conception, we were exhausted, and decided without seeking God's will, to take ourselves off the infertility roller coaster. Five years later, I found... More
The Van Winkle Family It was an ordinary Tuesday, in October of 2001...so I thought! I was driving home from work like any other day, listening to the FISH, a Christian radio station. Usually during the advertisements, I would switch to another station, but for some reason, on this particular Tuesday, I didn’t. There was... More	The Newell Family Mike and I were married in 1994 and always wanted a large family. After 3 years of infertility, we discussed adoption. However, he was genuinely worried about his capacity to love a child that wasn’t our biological child. God had His plan and surprised us with our first pregnancy, a boy, followed by... More
The Crebbin Family Our story begins in 1988, when we married. We always spoke of having three to four children in our family, but after having two biological boys we felt content. Little did we know that God wasn’t done with us! Over the years the subject of adoption would come up, but that's as far as it got. Our youngest... More	The Vernon Family Adoption became implanted on our hearts when our desire to have children proved to be challenging. After several years and a few rounds of fertility meds, God blessed us with two biological children. Even when our second child was a newborn, we still knew that adoption couldn’t be ruled out to complete... More
The Thielman Family We were married in 1997 and wanted to start a family a couple of years later. My husband always wanted to adopt, so when we had trouble getting pregnant, it was always an option. I think I was stuck on having a biological child because of some superficial need to see the child I had imagined in my mind.... More	The Wiger Family My husband and I talked about wanting to adopt before we were even married. We knew that adoption wasn’t “Plan B,” as in our backup plan, if we weren’t able to have children. We knew that adoption was a privilege, and an important part of God’s family design: “In love He predestined us to be adopted... More
The Haugh Family David and I have three biological children: Arthur, Austin and Lillie. Several years after Lillie was born, we decided we were done being ‘fruitful and multiplying.' We had the big garage sale, getting rid of everything except the crib; that was lost somewhere in the basement. Having had several miscarriages... More	The Lair Family About 8 years ago, I was sitting in a sanctuary listening intently as someone was getting up to talk about the church’s role in adoption and foster care. I can remember sitting on the edge of my seat with my heart literally about to beat out of my chest, knowing full well that God was speaking to me... More
The Nauss Family "Ok, Lord. I surrender to you," was my prayer in our Portland, Maine, hotel room that night. "But you realize, God, that you have to provide the funds since we live on a minister's salary and we don't even qualify for the minimum income guidelines for adopting a child from China." God was about to miraculously... More	The Smith Family We thought our 15-child family was complete. Following recent failed adoptions of siblings in Liberia, we thought that we, the Smith Family, were complete. Any new additions God had in store for our family would be of the grandchild variety; after all, our 14th grandchild just joined the family and there... More