All of the families at Adoption Expressions have adopted within one year, from the time they starting networking with their profile and/or webpage to the time their baby was placed in their arms! Most of the families were placed in less than 6 months!
Here are their testimonies...
Michael & Dawn - IT'S A BOY!
Placed after 10 mos of advertising and 3 mos with A Precious Gift ARC
"We have no idea how to even begin to thank Mary Lisa for all the guidance and friendship she has given us. When I (Dawn) found her site on-line and saw that she lived nearby, I called her right away. Little did I know that my stumbling onto Adoption Expressions would be the first step in God’s plan for our family.
Mary Lisa used our words and expressions to create a beautiful profile telling who we really are. She took the time to explain open adoption to me and softened my heart to the parts of it that were scary to us. She shared in the excitement when we were contacted by a new potential birth mom and the sorrow when we were not chosen. I was in awe of how Mary Lisa handled both my and my husbands grief when she picked us up from the airport after learning we were scammed following spending five days with a baby we thought was ours. I was a basket case and Mike was angry, but Mary Lisa understood both our feelings and comforted us with hope. When Mary Lisa started A Precious Gift Adoption Resource Center, we had a feeling our new child would come through her works. Mike, being very skeptical of anyone in the adoption world said, “the only one I know I can trust is Mary Lisa”. It was not long before Mary Lisa called me one Tuesday night to tell me about a local situation. It just seemed right. The peace we all felt was amazing. Eight days later, Michael Garrett was born and Mary Lisa was right there with us.
Through adoption and friendship I have always seen Mary Lisa as a very strong person, someone who is understanding but gets things done. I was taken back by the tears of joy I saw stream down Mary Lisa’s face. She was truly happy for us and our son's birth family. I feel very blessed to have been directed to Adoption Expressions and blessed that God used a special angel named Mary Lisa to connect us with our new son. God’s Precious Gift to us has been Mary Lisa!"
Mike, Dawn, Cody & Michael Garrett
Matt & Dana - IT'S A GIRL!
Baby girl in their arms within 9 mos of networking (referral through internet ad)
"We called Mary Lisa after talking with another adoptive couple at the start of our adoption journey. They found her and said how wonderful she is. She designed their website, and we took a look at it and thought we have to contact her. It looked awesome! So Matt and I decided to give Mary Lisa a call and WOW! We were so impressed by her sincerity and how helpful she was. She made the process of designing our website so easy for us. She completed it very quickly and of course we fell in love with it. We were looking for a certain theme for our website and Mary Lisa found the perfect graphics. When we would email Mary Lisa we always had a quick response and she was very knowledgeable when we had questions that we needed answered. She gave us a lot of attention and guided us through our adoption journey.
We responded to a lot of potential birthmothers and it seemed like we always got a response back and they were interested. We believe the website Mary Lisa created for us had a lot to do with that. Some of the potential birthmothers told us that our website stood out from the rest. Along the way we experienced a lot of disappointments, and Mary Lisa was always there with words of encouragement. We would highly recommend her to anyone and everyone. Mary Lisa is someone you could definitely trust.
Thank you so much Mary Lisa for the hard and honest work that you do. You have a talent like no other! You are truly a blessing to us!"
Matt, Dana, and Lauren
Mike & Helen - IT'S A GIRL!
Baby girl in their arms within 4 mos of networking (referral through internet)
"Dear Mary Lisa... We wanted to thank you for your help and let you know how much it meant to us. Not only were you able to “teach” us what to do on our adoption journey, but also you were able to make it easy. No adoption is easy but with your help it was easier then expected. You helped us avoid a very bad situation, and for that we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. If we didn’t have you we would have lost a lot of money and also had a lot of emotional pain. You are so very knowledgeable about all adoption issues. Anyone who uses you will NOT be disappointed. We are surely going to recommend you to our friends who want to adopt.
We had a very short waiting period due to your expertise. We now have a wonderful new daughter! She is a wonderful addition to our family. Big sister Haley loves her so very much. We can’t imagine our lives without her now.
We wanted to write this letter to express the way we feel. However, words can’t describe our happiness. We are so glad that we met such a wonderful person like you. Thank you for everything!"
Helen, Mike, HaleyAnn & Leia
Darren & Maria - IT'S A GIRL!
Matched thru attorney who found them on internet! Baby girl in arms within 9 mos!
"We want to thank you for making it possible for us to add our precious bundle to our family. If we had not advertised via the internet and used your services for our web page the lawyer would never have contacted us at all. Even though her first contact with us proved heart-wrenching, her second match with our family proved perfect! She connected us with our daughter Olivia's birthmother who is a wonderful selfless individual. I was able to be there for our daughter's birth and even got to cut the umbilical cord. It was a miracle! Olivia's birthmother was a joy to work with, truly committed to the act of giving her baby to a loving home. We really had no worries after meeting her and spending time with her about her commitment to her adoption plan. Everything happens for a reason and if it were not for our first situation falling through, we would not have our little angel today. Olivia is a beautiful, intelligent, happy baby! Thank you again!"
Darren, Maria, Nicolas, Vincent, and Olivia
Tony & Angie - IT'S A BOY!
Blessed with a baby boy within a month of having new profile done!
"Without really searching around, I used someone to design our webpage that was recommended by our agency. She was a very nice and helpful person, and she designed the page to the best of her abilities, but she did not have much expertise in composing dbl's. The result was a dbl that stated the facts and lacked the warmth that we needed. We used that letter for one year, and we did have contacts, but I grew frustrated with the wait and wanted to redesign both our hardcopy and our webpage. I found Mary Lisa through the recommendation of our daughter's birthmom. I read all of her profiles and saw that she has a real gift with words and a talent for design. I hired her immediately to rework our letter and webpage. Mary Lisa worked quickly and professionally. Most importantly, she helped me to find a voice that conveyed sincerity and warmth in writing our dbl. I was so pleased with the results!
In less than a month of using the new profile Mary Lisa created for us, we were chosen by a birthfamily! Ryan came into our home July 1, 2005, and we are truly overjoyed! We are now the proud parents of 2 children through open adoption. Thank you, Mary Lisa, for your help in completing our family."
Tony, Angie, Natalie & Ryan
Greg & Deb - IT'S A BOY!
Matched through Adoption Expressions!
"We are adoptive parents to 3 miracles. Our first adoption was “quick and smooth” through a local agency. Our second adoption was not. We waited 2 years to reactivate our file with our agency (their rule). Then we waited another 2 LONG years with not much happening at all. We were frustrated as we so longed to hold another angel in our arms. We knew we had to do something on our own especially when we learned we were not even shown at all in the first year waiting with the agency and only 2 times the second year. We decided to put a website online and advertise a bit and see what would happen. This step of independent adoption was all so new and a bit scary for us! This is when I first heard of Mary Lisa by reading some of her posts online. I felt she was knowledgeable in adoption, and I wrote to her for some advice. From that moment on she has been right there sharing all her adoption advice and experiences with us. Within one month from listing our website, we were contacted by our daughter’s birthfamily. Within a few months, we were on a plane flying across the country to meet our precious daughter.
For our third (and last) adoption, we contacted Mary Lisa to have her create a wonderful 8-page profile for us along with an awesome website that truly captured our family! We used these tools to network online and also send profiles out to attorney's and potential situations. We had a couple of failed adoptions along with some scams through our year's journey. Mary Lisa gave us so much hope, and we gained a lot of comfort and strength from talking with her. I know I personally could not have made it through this adoption Journey without her.
One of Mary Lisa's clients through Adoption Expressions had just been placed with their newborn daughter. They continued to receive birthparent contacts from their networking efforts, and would send these contacts to Mary Lisa. In February she received a call from one of these contacts -- a potential birthmother seeking a family for her baby. We matched everything this birthmom was looking for so Mary Lisa sent our information her. This birthmom-to-be contacted us on Valentines Day!! We set up a couple of visits with the birthparents, and made a solid match as they chose us to be parents for their precious son. We were honored to be there for his birth, and we are blessed to share an open adoption with his birthparents.
Mary Lisa, we cannot thank you enough for all you have done for our family and for sharing your huge caring heart with us along with all your knowledge of adoption! You will always be considered our angel that led us to our precious son!"
Deb, Greg, Jessica, Jeanea & Joshua
Chad & Jeannine - IT'S A GIRL!
Matched within hours of having new profile done!
"I was impressed by Mary Lisa from the first moment I talked to her on the phone. Her knowledge, honesty, and warm personality just took me back. I was very frustrated with our current webpage and "dear birthmother" letter. We were profiled many times but were never chosen. A close friend had suggested calling Mary Lisa and asking her for help. Mary Lisa and I spent 3 hours on the phone that night making sense of our letter, and reorganizing it. She helped us put into words who we really are. That night I sat back and looked at our letter, and I never felt more confident in my life. The very next day we received a call from an agency wanting our profile to give to a couple making an adoption plan. Mary Lisa scrambled and finished my letter, and I was able to FED-EX it that same day. Two days later we received the call that we were chosen and our daughter's birthmother was in labor. The birthparents loved our letter and commented on how they could feel "our love"... something they didn't get from the other profiles. A few days later our beautiful baby girl Lilly was born! I truly believe that if it wasn't for Mary Lisa we would not have been chosen!"
"Thank You Mary Lisa for sharing your gift of writing and your love for adoption with us! You are truly a wonderful person!"
Chad, Jeannine, Grace & Lilly
Byron & Lorrie - IT'S A GIRL!
Baby girl in their arms within 9 months!
"Our beautiful baby girl has been such a blessing and a joy! It took exactly nine months from the time we started our paper work to the day we brought Emma home! We want to thank you for all your words of wisdom and kind thoughts. We can't thank you enough for the wonderful website you created for us. We really feel like it gave a true representation of who we are. Everyone who saw our website, including our adoption attorney, has been impressed with it! Please let waiting adoptive parents know that when it happens, it can happen very fast. We sent our profile to a birthmother on a Thursday and met her on Friday. We were invited to the hospital on Sunday when she went into labor. Lorrie was there for Emma's birth on early Monday morning, and we brought her home on Tuesday! Our hearts are filled with joy!"
Bryon, Lorrie & Emma
Christopher & Desiree - IT'S A GIRL!
Baby girl in their arms within 4 months of networking!
"From the very first time I spoke with Mary Lisa about our adoption plan I felt a connection with her that she knew exactly what we were going through and the feelings and emotions we had been experiencing. She felt like an adoption counselor to us. She started helping us right away to design our webpage and took our ideas for design and found exactly what we wanted. We had been looking for someone to design our page and Mary Lisa's pages were very unique and special in so many ways. Anytime she had a potential birthmother she would let us know, she is always very personal to everyones needs and wishes. I have to say that if we decide to adopt again Mary Lisa will be the first person we contact!"
Christopher, Desiree & Hailey
Sean & Lisa - IT'S A GIRL!
Baby girl in their arms within 4 months of networking!
Sean and Lisa were blessed with their second daughter after a few shorts months of advertising on the internet with their website (started networking in Nov 04, baby girl born in Jan 05, and placed in their arms in Feb 05!). This is the email I received from them on February 19, 2005 announcing the birth and adoption of their daughter, Nellie!
"Hi Mary Lisa! We have wonderful news.....I don't know if you remember we were contacted last month by a birthfamily here in Cincinnati who was pregnant. Well, the bmom had a baby girl on 1/27 and her parents (grandparents) were taking care of the baby. The grandparents found our website and contacted us. We met with everyone and things moved along so fast. As of yesterday, the birthmom signed at court and we took little Nellie home last night. I'm sorry I didn't fill you in sooner, but things moved along so fast and part of me was not believing it was going to happen! But, it did!! Last night was so wonderful! This never would have happened if it wasn't for your adoption expertise, talent and help, and most importantly, your prayers.... thank you from the bottom of our hearts! Lisa"
Sean, Lisa, Maggie & Nellie
Brad & Karen - IT'S A GIRL!
Baby girl in their arms within 3 months of networking!
"Our adoption journey started with prayer in September 2004, and ended with a beautiful newborn baby girl in December! The decision to adopt is exciting and scary and full of unknowns. Unsure of exactly what to do or how to do it, God lead us to our “adoption angel”, Mary Lisa. She guided us through the entire process. Not only did Mary Lisa bring us knowledge and expertise in the process of adoption, but she also brought us things that we could have never expected. She is one of the most kind, caring, empathetic and faith-filled people we have ever met. She understood the journey we were about to begin far more than we did, and she held our hand and supported us all the way.
We have friends who are adopting through an agency. They have gotten lost in the shuffle and fallen through the cracks. Mary Lisa gave us immediate and undivided attention in everything from creating our beautiful profile and website and developing our advertising campaign, to words of encouragement when the wait seemed unbearable.
We have recommended Mary Lisa to everyone we speak to who is considering private domestic adoption. She is a unique and very talented person and we feel quite certain there is no one who could have helped us more. Mary Lisa brings knowledge and skills to guide you through the process, but more than that you will feel her love and compassion. She truly wants you to be successful in your quest to adopt, and she will work tirelessly to help you achieve that goal. Words could never express our gratitude to her for the blessing of our baby daughter, Kathryn."
Brad, Karen, Austin, David & Kathryn
Tom & Tracy - IT'S A BOY! IT'S A BOY AGAIN!
Successful adoptions of a toddler boy and a baby boy within 2 years!
"We would like to send a HUGE thank you to Mary Lisa. She has been such a great help to us in the adoption process. When we began to look into adoption, we recieved Mary Lisa's name from the social worker who did our homestudy, and that was the best thing that happened to us. From the first moment we spoke to Mary Lisa, we knew how devoted she was to the adoption process and helping people have their dreams come true.
We met with Mary Lisa, and she was able to create a beautiful website and profiles for us to circulate. She took our words and made them special for birthfamilies to read. We had many compliments on these from the birthfamilies we had contact with as well as our family and friends. We even had e-mails from people who just stummbled onto our website saying how beautiful it was.
We will be forever grateful to Mary Lisa. She not only created our website and profile but she was a friend through out the rollercoaster ride of adoption. We started networking in February 2003, and she was always there as a shoulder to cry on during the rough times and also there to share the joys of bringing home our 2 boys (Blake in October 2003 and Braedan in November 2004). Whenever we needed anything, she was there to help. We have been in the adoption world for less than 2 years, and with Mary Lisa's help we were able to bring 2 beautiful boys to our family. We cannot thank her enough for all she has done!"
Tom, Tracy, Tanea, Blake & Braedan
Randy & Marie - IT'S A BOY!
Successful match within days of networking through Adoption Expressions!
"Hello! We adopted a beautiful baby boy in February of 2004, and we're writing to express our thanks to an invaluable resource to us along the way, Mary Lisa Piseczny. Mary Lisa created our profile and developed our website in preparation for our independent advertising as an adoptive couple. With our input and photographs, Mary Lisa applied her extensive experience in the area of adoption to put together an eye-catching, personal profile describing why we would be a great choice for birthmothers exploring adoption. We were extremely pleased with the result and we received lots of positive feedback from people who read it. Mary Lisa also put together a very user-friendly website using several formatting techniques that made it stand out from the rest.
In addition to creating our profile and developing our website, Mary Lisa acted as a personal advisor to us throughout the process. With three adoptive children of her own and a very educated background in adoption, she made what can be an overwhelming process much more manageable. It is also no secret that Mary Lisa is a well known contact when it comes to adoptive parents and prospective birth mothers. One of these contacts in fact led us to the birthmother of our son. In looking back and talking about the process with other couples who have adopted, we know we wouldn't have done it any other way. Mary Lisa has become of a very close friend of ours now and we consider her to be our son's guardian angel because of everything she did to make our dream become a reality. We plan to adopt another child within the next year or two and there is one thing we know for sure we'll look to Mary Lisa to guide us along the way."
Randy, Marie & Cole
Jeff & Carey - IT'S A GIRL!
Baby girl in their arms within 6 months of advertising!
"When we came to the decision that adoption was the way we wanted to grow our family we started to investigate the different options available. We began searching the internet for information on the types of adoptions. It didn’t take long before we were overwhelmed with decisions to make. Would we choose domestic or international adoption, newborn or older child, agency or attorney. We weren’t sure how we were going to decide. It was around this time that God started opening doors. I met a very special person, Mary Lisa, through a mutual friend at church. Mary Lisa was so willing to share her adoption experiences with us and answer the many questions we threw her way. After talking with her, we knew that independent newborn adoption was the way to bring a child into our family. Mary Lisa played a large part in helping us navigate the next several months. From designing our web page, creating an ad campaign, connecting us to adoption websites, and creating an adoption profile for us. I knew that God had placed her in our life at just the right time. She offered us tremendous support and encouragement through the entire process. On January 21, 2004 our hopes and dreams were realized with the birth of our daughter Elizabeth Grace. We will always be grateful to Mary Lisa and the vital part she had in our adoption journey."
Jeff, Carey, Kevin, Stephen, Melissa & Elizabeth
Ash & Rhonda - IT'S A BOY!
Successful match within 2 weeks of advertising!
"As a 'new' hopeful adoptive couple, who didn't want to use an adoption agency, we were struggling to figure out how to adopt independantly. After cruising around the adoption web sites it became obvious that for us to be noticed by a potential birthparent we would need a website that would leap off the computer screen and into their heart. Mary Lisa gave us a site that did just that! In October 2002, we asked her to help us with our profile and build our site... and within 2 weeks of posting it on several adoption sites which she suggested, we were contacted by our son's birthfamily. They were so impressed with the graphics and the music that they took the time to read our "story", and discovered how much our families had in common. Our wonderful son, born in March 2003, would not be with us had we not found Mary Lisa and trusted her abilities to create a site that painted a picture of our life. We can't say enough about her... and her heart is truly in adoption."
Ash, Rhonda, Dylan & Hayden
Scott & Mary Lisa - IT'S A GIRL!
Contacted within 4 days of advertising... baby girl in our arms 5 months later!
"We started the process to adopt a 3rd time when we lived in New York in 2000. Our homestudy was updated, and before we could begin actively pursuing adoption, we discovered that Scott needed to relocate to PA for his job. So we put everything on hold and started all over again from scratch once we settled in PA. Our PA homestudy was completed in January 2002, and we started an intensive advertising campaign in February using the website and profile Mary Lisa created. Within 4 days, we were contacted by Megan's birthmother, and Megan was placed in our arms on July 2, 2002.
For the first two adoptions of our sons, we went through an agency. The first time adopting was quick and smooth as silk, but the second time was a nightmare (very long wait and many failed situations). Both adoptions were extremely expensive. We decided to pursue private adoption through an attorney for our 3rd adoption. We not only had more control over the decision-making throughout the process, but it wound up being a fraction of the cost of an agency or facilitated adoption. Most importantly, we have more birthfamily background information for our daughter than we do for our two sons combined!
The success of adopting our daughter prompted Mary Lisa to advocate for private independent adoption, and thus, Adoption Expressions was born!"
Scott, Mary Lisa, Dylan, Connor & Megan
