Adoptive Moms

When Becca Hill, 38, looks at her children, she counts her blessings. Like any mom, she loves her family, but the joys of motherhood are all the more sweet, she says, because for years she wasn’t able to have children.

“I was consumed with wanting a child—and with not being able to have one,” says Hill, of Key Largo, Fla. (pop. 11,886). Today, she and her husband, Craig, 40, are parents of four adopted daughters, and they view their years of infertility as a blessing in disguise.

“We wouldn’t have the children that we have in our home now had we not gone down that road,” Becca says. “Had I known the blessing of adoption,” she  adds, “I think I would have gone straight to adoption.”

She shares that message daily in her work with Charis, an adoption-focused Christian ministry she co-founded to assist and support other adopting parents and to provide assistance to orphans.

Resources to help navigate the adoption process

“In 2003, when I first started the paperwork to adopt from Ukraine, I didn’t have anywhere to go for help,” Becca says. The experience was fraught with frustration, but she and her husband persevered. In 2004, they adopted their daughter Molly, now 8. Becca shared her experiences on a blog and through local media. Soon  she was fielding emails and phone calls from other people seeking advice on the adoption process.

“When we adopted Molly, my motive was simply to become a mom after struggling with infertility,” Becca says. “But after I went to Ukraine and saw firsthand the hundreds and hundreds of children waiting, my motive changed drastically. It was no longer about me. It became about children finding homes.”

In 2007, Becca teamed up with friends Stephanee Potts and Camille Wheelock to form Charis, named for the Hebrew word that means “grace.” In 2008, the Hills adopted daughter Madeline, now 3, in a private domestic adoption. In the process, they got to know the birth mother, which introduced Becca to another method of adoption. Now, when birth mothers call Charis seeking information or support, Becca often takes the call. “I had a very good relationship with Madeline’s birth mother,” Becca says. “It gave me a fondness and a sympathy for birth moms and the huge sacrifice they make.”

Another focus for Becca is organizing twice-yearly trips by older adoptable children from Ukraine for visits with interested host families in Texas—where the Hills lived in New Braunfels until earlier this year. So far, 11 of these children have been adopted and five more are in the process of joining American families. Charis also has helped 22 additional children, from the United States, Ukraine, Guatemala, Haiti and Ethiopia, find adoptive parents.

Charis co-founder Stephanee, 31, and her husband, Zach, 32, of San Marcos, Texas (pop. 34,733), already parents of three, hosted and then decided to adopt 10- and 12-year-old sisters. “Adoption is one of the greatest gifts we’ve had, but it can be very challenging, too,” Stephanee says. “Having a support system makes all the difference.”

Last October, Becca and Craig finalized the adoption of sisters Stephanie, 16, and Lizzie, 11, who first visited on a hosting trip. In New Braunfels, the girls found a ready-made circle of friends adopted from the same orphanage. “There are all these Ukrainian kids running around a small town,” Becca says. “People start asking questions, and before you know it, we’re having a conversation about adoption.”