I used to think that my epitaph would say, “Margaret Emily Friedrich, 1952-until fill in the date. I’m fine, thank you.” Recently, I have changed it to “She did the best she could.” Because honestly, that’s all we can do…

How would I describe myself before children? I would say I was a young, ferociously ambitious, working New York woman. I have four children and have been married for 39 years. My oldest two girls are 32 and 27. Then I have two younger children who are both adopted: my daughter, P-quy, from Vietnam, is […]
If I had known everything that was going to happen, my life may have been very different, but the best thing that happened was that I was so busy working and being a mom and kind of just living in life’s moments that there wasn’t time to panic.

I had worked in childcare since I was 12 so I knew I wanted kids. I also knew that I couldn’t have children myself because of a health issue. On my mom’s side of the family, my great grandmother had my grandmother when she was 25. My grandmother had my mom when she was 25. […]
There came a point where I just got tired of being sad all the time. I wanted to be a mom, and I didn’t care anymore how it happened.

I have daughter who is 2 year and a half, who was adopted from birth. When my husband and I talked about it, it seemed natural that we would have children together. My husband was adopted. We thought we would probably adopt at least one child, and have one child “naturally.” We started trying and […]
All the caregivers in the orphanage hugged her goodbye and were crying. Then she grabbed my aunt’s hand and walked out.

My daughter, Pia, is 2 ½. I was single until I was 36. I am Indian, but I grew up here. I had my own dental practice starting at 29 so I was pretty career-oriented. I did go through the process of my parents trying to arrange a marriage for me. It was just like […]
To adopt, you must put things out there about why you wanted to be a parent and your hopes and dreams for your child. I remember thinking not everyone has to go through this process.

My name is Toddi and I am 46 years old and my daughter is Lina Marie Wah and her birthdate, as far as we know, is October 12, 2002 Before I had Lina, my husband and I were living in Denver. While we were there, we decided we wanted to have children. In the process […]