We're a Match! 3 Families Share Their Adoption Stories

For Katy Lawrence, a 19-year-old high school senior with an unplanned pregnancy, the hardest thing about giving her son up for adoption wasn't handing him over to Monica and Rodney Rogers; it was the drive home from the hospital afterward. "Your arms feel empty," she says. "It feels like a baby should be there, and it's not."

Although she'd chosen the Rogers, a couple from South Carolina, to adopt her son, had met them several times, and had exchanged innumerable emails and calls, the day she gave birth, she didn't know when her next communication with them would be.

For about five days after the birth, the birth mother and adoptive parents kept in touch--at a distance. Monica and Rodney, stuck in their hotel until interstate adoption agencies approved their departure for home, were thrust into the demands of parenthood. Katy and her mother wanted to visit but were also concerned they'd alarm them. By California law, a birth mother has 30 days to change her mind. (A year earlier, the Rogers had lost a baby when the birth mother reclaimed her after six days.)