Natasha & Cory's Family Adoption Fund

Hello! Our loving family of four—Cory Woodard, Natasha Brooks-Sperduti, Vii (13), and Lysander (11)—is putting our energy, resources, and hope into adopting a baby. As many of you know, we have been trying to grow our family since we came together four years ago. In that time we’ve faced multiple medically complicated miscarriages, expensive IVF, and the heartbreaking loss of our full-term stillborn daughter, Naomi. These years have stretched us emotionally and financially. Now our hearts are ready to adopt a newborn into our family, and we need your help to make it happen.

As a parenting duo—raising Cory’s beautiful kids part time—we already rise to the challenges inherent in the role, and are joyfully committed to accompanying our children in all their life experiences. We look forward to continuing to model healthy relating and to offer guidance, witness, and unconditional love to our growing family. Naomi was the only child of Natasha’s flesh and the only child of our love. We will always mourn her. And, we still long to raise a child together from the start.

The whole adoption process is a BIG undertaking, and we are already invested and underway. We’ve been working with an adoption agency—meeting with their social workers, making home safety improvements, taking infant first-aid and CPR classes—and carefully weighing choices of matching agencies with short and long-term consequences.

Private domestic infant adoption is surprisingly expensive—ranging as much as $60,000–$100,000. It includes lawyer fees, fees to nonprofit agencies that match birth mothers with adoptive parents, support for the birth mother, lost income, and travel expenses, which can include weeks of out-of-state housing and food while the adoption is being processed. We’re aiming for a more affordable adoption, while also paying attention to ethical considerations, especially those which may have long-term impacts on our adopted child. We’re also applying for grants to help aid our efforts.

Adopting a newborn is precarious and unpredictable, from whether a match will go through or fall through, to what the actual costs will be. This is because real people with unique situations and needs come together in this process. Sudden needs do arise that cannot be foreseen. This could be a need for medical care, legal advice, mental health support, logistical support, or financial assistance.

We have, as responsibly as we can, put our hearts and bodies on the line over and over again for a child. We continue to do so with adoption, and we ask you to take on that risk and reap that potential reward with us now.

Please donate or share with your community. Every bit will help us grow our family, together!

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If you need your donation to be tax deductible, please reach out (email us here through GoFundMe—you can even do this anonymously) and we will set up a way for you to do that through a different nonprofit.