For Baltimore Sun reporter Yvonne Wenger, years of unsuccessful pregnancy attempts turn what should be cheerful moments — greeting neighbors and their children, celebrating friends' baby showers — into torment. The struggle brought thousands of dollars in medical bills and nearly tore her marriage apart, but never shattered her hope of becoming a parent. What might have been an ending for some families was only a beginning for hers. She and her husband Artie could have never predicted where they would end up.

Yvonne's story is also being told in words, pictures and video at baltimoresun.com/thewait.

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Yvonne realizes she should have sought answers sooner about why she wasn't getting pregnant. In the beginning, though, she was prioritizing her career, and research she read online said it could take time. When she finally saw a specialist, her diagnosis was scary. Months of tests and procedures still couldn't guarantee a safe pregnancy and healthy child. Yvonne and her husband considered adoption. But their conscience kept pulling them toward foster parenting. They had an empty room, and there were plenty of children in their own city who needed one.

Yvonne's story is also being told in words, pictures and video.

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Foster care is intended to keep children safe until their parents are ready to care for them again. However, in thousands of cases a year, it's concluded adoption is what's best for the child. Most of the children adopted in the United States, in fact, are adopted through foster care. We step away from Yvonne’s story to look at this bigger picture. How are children placed in foster care? How do they leave it? How could the system work better? We brought these and other questions to Richard Barth, dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland.

Yvonne's story is also being told in words, pictures and video. The presentation includes an animated graphic showing how and how many children move through foster care in Yvonne’s home state of Maryland and a chance to ask questions about the system.

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Yvonne and her husband Artie take in a 15-month-old foster son who social workers say was abandoned by his mother. They take this as a cue that they might be able to adopt him. His hair — red, just like Yvonne’s — also seems like a sign. The first of many moral dilemmas comes the very next day: Would they also care for his 9-year-old brother? They didn't feel prepared for another child, especially an older one, but who were they to keep siblings apart? Their hopes. The system’s goals. What was best for the boys. What was best for their parents. Could it all line up?

Yvonne's story is also being told in words, pictures and video.

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After saying goodbye to one foster son, and preparing for his brother to follow him home, Yvonne and Artie welcome a newborn girl whose mother wants to put her up for adoption. After a decade of dreaming, they're closer than ever to becoming parents. There has to be a paternity test, though. And the mother could still change her mind. Was this girl their forever daughter?

Yvonne's story is also being told in words, pictures and video.

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We visit with Yvonne and her husband Artie in their Baltimore row home right before Christmas, the first they're officially parents. Walking and on the cusp of talking, Adeline, the foster baby they adopted in the spring, is now over a year old. Godparents, too, to their former foster sons, who remain in their lives, Yvonne and Artie reflect on the unexpected way they realized their dream, a decade in the making.

Yvonne's story is also told in words, pictures and video.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.