Happy New Year!!! I hope that you and your family had a wonderful holiday season filled with delicious food, laughter, and wonderful time with family and friends!!
Now lets get into why you’re here!
Gladney had 4 placements in the month of December. All of these placements were with babies born in the Dallas Fort Worth area. Three out of four of the birth mothers were drop-ins from local hospitals, who did not have a plan for their babies when they went to the hospital to give birth. Three of the babies were Caucasian, with the other being Latino and Asian. Two of them had some drug exposure, while the other two did not, to their knowledge. They were able to place babies with three of their longer waiting families which is super exciting. The other family was closer to their average wait which has held steady between 18-24 months. For reference we are currently standing at 17 months of waiting. Which means the next few months are going to be very exciting for us!
Gladney is currently working with around 41 expectant birth mothers, and we are currently 22nd in line.
I’ll end with a story that our case worker shared with us!
“I’ll share a story, if you’ll indulge me—one Thursday afternoon in December I had a check in call with a family who was feeling pretty discouraged. The call went how they often go- I shared how much I had been able to send their book lately, what (if anything) I knew was coming by way of opportunities on the horizon, and reiterated again and again my confidence that we WOULD find their match. But I also had to tell them that I didn’t know when we would find it just yet. Shortly after I disconnected my call with them, I learned that we had a “drop in” in Dallas. By the weekend, I had told them about the baby and the birth mother’s situation, and Monday afternoon, they met their daughter at the hospital! Their lives turned upside down in a blink! By one week after that call where they were so discouraged, they were visiting me at Gladney with their new baby to take some photos! While it doesn’t always happen this way, hold on to this story as a glimmer of hope that sometimes you are so much closer than you know.”
Here’s to 2024- may it be the best year yet!