The Waldfogel's
We are Gary, Mandi, Owen and Caleb Waldfogel. This is our
story of how we came to be a family through adoption, from
Mandi's point of view of course.
When I was in high school. A very good friend of mine had a
hot uncle, who was more like a cousin, that used to pay us to
clean his house. He was in a wheelchair and did more than
most people who are completely functional. I had a huge crush
on him and I would have cleaned his house for free. If I had
known I was going to do that for the rest of my life,I would have
asked for more money. The summer of 1999 I was old enough
for Gary to finally notice me and we started dating. That
November he asked me to marry him and we were married
February 26, 2000. We love to go snowmobiling and skiing in
Colorado, and 4-wheeling in Tennessee. Gary got a job
delivering campers all over the country and I went with him
developing my career in photography. We traveled out to
California and visited Washington D.C. We even drove up to
Alaska in the middle of winter. That was awesome, and a little
crazy.

We always knew we wanted to have kids and got busy right
away. We tried fertility treatments including IVF twice. That
was about enough for us and we turned to adoption. Gary and
his brother and sister are all adopted and it felt like we were
carrying on the legacy. We started the adoption process in
May 2003 and our Son Owen was born in July 2004. A year
after Owen was born we started on our second adoption
because we thought there was no way we would get as lucky
as the first adoption. And we were right. In May 2006 we
thought we had another little boy. We got to be at the delivery
and stay in the hospital and take care of him for 4 days. The
young girl changed her mind and decided to keep her baby.
We were absolutely devastated. He was our Son for 4 days
and we will never forget him. But if we had not lost that baby
we would not have our Caleb, who was born June 20, 2007.
Caleb felt like our Son right from the beginning just like Owen
did. We had a lot of struggles with adoption, a lot of people
tried to scam us. There was a lot of heartbreak. But it was all
worth it. We have the two smartest most beautiful and
wonderful boys in the whole world. We thank God for them
everyday and try to be the best parents for them that we can.
We have a completely open adoption with both of our boys'
birth families. Check out Owen and Caleb's pages for their
stories.
Gary & Owen
4-wheeling in Tennessee
4- wheeling in Attica, IN
Mandi & Owen on the beach in Seattle
Mandi & Caleb
Our jeep that Gary built. I swear it's not
broken
I would love to find some people in my area that have been touched by
adoption. Whether you have adopted domestically or internationally, are trying
to adopt, are adopted,are a birth parent, involved with foster care etc, I would
love to be a part of some sort of support group. I would love to share all my
information and experiences to help someone, and get some advice of my
own. It would also be nice for my kids to have friends that are also adopted.
Contact me by email- awaldfogel@yahoo.com If you're on myspace I'm
Mrswally26!
Check out my photography
website
www.LucidXpressions.com