Having not long discovered the adoption site and reading with great interest your news and stories I thought I would like to share our joy with you.

I am English and my husband Tuck is a New Zealander we lived in NZ for 5 years during this time we struggled through various tests etc to try and solve our infertility.

After 2 years we decided to look into adoption in NZ. I think in the UK adoption is very different in NZ there are VERY few babies and children ever given up for adoption to total strangers they are usually adopted inter family.

We applied anyway and asked for a baby or child under 3 years old. After many weeks and interviews etc we were approved and then put together a profile of ourselves and family to show to the prospective birthmother who chooses who she is to place her child with!!

Very different here I understand. After 2 years of waiting and hoping the phone would ring we eventually did get the call we only dare dream off, to say that a birthmother would like to meet us and that the baby was due in 6 weeks time.

As you can imagine we went into panic as the baby was due the same time as our holiday was booked to Rarotonga!! We decided to meet her first in the hope that she liked us enough so that we had to cancel our holiday!!!!!!!!

As a result she did like us and we did decide to cancel our trip and 5 weeks later Jack was born. We got a phone call from Karen the birthmother to say we had a son come and see him.

Words just cannot describe our emotions but we all stayed in the hospital until he was 12 days old (not allowed to leave by law until the handover papers etc signed) including birthmother and grandmother.

It was a wonderful time for us but also our feelings for Karen were with us constantly. The adoption was her choice from the day she new she was expecting Jack and we laugh with her now that were ever grateful for her mistake!!!

He is now 16 months old and is absolutely gorgeous he will always know he is adopted as we went into a very open adoption by all our choices and Karen has just spent a wonderful holiday with us here in the UK.

We now live here due to work and great to be near family but will one day return to NZ to live. Jacks birthfather is from Ireland and has regular contact with us and visits occasionally so I guess this is to say adoption does work its totally made our family literally all over the world.

Best wishes to everyone in our past position adoption is never far from our minds.
Tuck & Alison