Adoption professional Mardie Caldwell, C.O.A.P., is a nationally recognized authority on open adoption, adoption resources and adopting using the Internet. A Certified Open Adoption Practitioner, Caldwell is the founder of the nationwide adoption organization Lifetime Adoption Center, LLC. established in 1986 and president of Lifetime Adoption Inc., a Florida licensed child-placing agency. She recently was awarded with Woman-Owned Business of the Year.
Caldwell has assisted in thousands of successful adoptions and was one of the first adoption professionals on the Internet. Caldwell is also a well-known adoption expert as seen on TV and quoted in print publications, as well as the radio talk show host for Let’s Talk Adoption.
She is the author of multiple books about adoption: AdoptingOnline.com, Adoption: Your Step-by-Step Guide, So I Was Thinking About Adoption, and Called to Adoption. She has won numerous publishing awards: the iParenting Media Award, Benjamin Franklin Award, and Publishers Weekly Rising Star Award. Her media appearances include The Today Show, The 700 Club, ABC News, Larry King Live, CNN, NBC, and CBS.
As an adoptive parent who has experienced many of the challenges prospective adoptive parents face, Caldwell knows the joy, the sorrow and the frustration of dealing with infertility and adoption. She also understands and wants to share the important steps that must be taken to complete a safe and secure adoption, as she has in her seven award-winning published books.
Caldwell’s life work has been dedicated to educating and helping adoptive parents and birth parents find each other. Her greatest desire in life is to build happy families by providing loving and secure futures for the precious infants and children brought to us through adoption. Caldwell works one-on-one with birth parents, medical professionals, adoption attorneys and social service professionals to attain her goal.
Message from the Founder:
It is natural for me to want to help others interested in adopting. All my life, the one thing I wanted most was to be a mother and have a house full of children. I grew up the oldest of five, so helping and caring for children was a way of life for me as long as I can remember. I have always been in awe of women who were expecting; they just seemed to glow.
Now, through my profession and my own life experience, I have been blessed to be able to see the same glow on an adoptive mother’s face as she gazes at her child for the first time. At that moment, an adoptive mother could never be more beautiful. I have seen exhausted soon-to-be mothers, after spending days on an airplane, hair tussled, eyes droopy and blank, suddenly light up with that same glow the moment their eyes alight on their child. They become different beings with their new babies in their arms.
As for the adoptive father, the true daddy comes out when he knows this child is his. There seems to be an immediate letting down of his guard and then a slight rising of his guard until he is sure everything will turn out right. Most men are doing what comes naturally—protecting and wanting the best for their families and emotionally protecting their spouses.
Many adoptive parents have gone through a great deal of challenges with infertility. I endured seven pregnancy losses prior to adopting. This can strengthen a marriage or it can tear it apart. I have seen husbands and wives distance themselves during the infertility years, unable to speak to each other about their hopes and fears. Many times, only in the privacy of my office have I seen their true feelings of sadness, grief and loss surface. Working with couples to build their families during the adoption process can bring out the best and the worst in a relationship.
It is my fervent wish that this program will assist you during your unique adoption process. With the power and the knowledge of the Internet, a long and difficult journey can be made easier for you and your soon-to-be family. With all sincerity, I say, “May God bless you all.”
