Making adoption more like family and less like business

Annie Surine and her husband Andy have three adopted kids, but they know so many families who want to adopt and can’t afford it. “That price keeps so many couples from being able to adopt. And it was such a businesslike experience that I thought, ‘Why can’t we make this more family-centred, more spiritual?'” Annie said.

That’s why Annie Surine and Mary Kate Sparrow, both alums of Franciscan University of Steubenville, founded Siena Adoption Services to make the adoption process affordable and family-centred. “We bonded over the feeling that this is an extension of the pro-life movement,” Mary said. All the women work on a volunteer basis, relying on donations to cover the costs; the organization Crossroads Pro-Life has offered to share their office space with them.

As part of their efforts to make the process more friendly, these moms interview prospective couples personally and their organization offers mental health counseling for both the birth moms and the adoptive parents to ease the transition.

They chose St. Catherine of Siena as their patron to honor the bravery required of the birth mothers who choose life and the couples who welcome the children into their families. As Mary put it, “She was a real renegade in her day.”