By opening an adoption agency, two moms are helping families grow

from: argusleader.com

By opening an adoption agency, two moms are helping families grow

It took Jim and Jennifer Zulk nearly seven years to meet Jennalyn Rose, their 9-month-old daughter.

The Emery couple turned to adoption in 2001, after years of trying to have their own child, but five years later, the Zulks were ready to give up on dreams of starting a family.

That's when they found All About U Adoptions, a small, independent start-up agency founded by Barb Pearson-Cramer of Milbank and Coleen Globke of Marion - adoptive mothers themselves. The agency was granted its license by the South Dakota Department of Social Services in April 2006.

There are eight agencies in South Dakota where at least one of their functions is adoption, says Emily Currey, communications director with the state social services department. All About U is the only agency that started without another entity behind it.

"It was very difficult. I don't think this had been done before with two crazy adoptive moms like us. We were scrutinized very intensely. What was our agenda? Why did these two people want to start an adoption agency?" Pearson-Cramer says.

Office space in Milbank serves as headquarters for All About U, which operates mainly through its co-owners' cell phones. It took the women two years to license and another year to complete the first adoption.

In 2007, the agency placed five children with adoptive families. This year, the women have placed two children and expect to place five more by the end of May.

"I think what makes us different is that we make ourselves available to the people we work with," says Pearson-Cramer.

"If you have a problem at 11 or 12 o'clock at night and you suffer all night because you don't call me, I will be mad at 8 a.m. when you finally do call," she says. "I want to help ease your fears, or at least be able to point you in the right direction."

Pearson-Cramer, 39, and Globke, 36, also bring adoption experience to the table. Together, the two have personally experienced most forms of adoption, from international adoption, to in- and out-of-state adoptions, to open and closed adoptions.

Pearson-Cramer was herself an adopted child and Globke had a family member who placed her child for adoption. Both women also have been through reclaim situations, where the birth mother decides not to go through with the adoption.

"They really bring together the whole idea of that walking the walk thing," says Josh Kroll, program assistant at the St. Paul, Minn.-based North American Council on Adoptable Children.

The two organizations have worked together for several years, even before All About U was formed.

"I think we can relate to adoptive families on a different level. This isn't a job for us. This is our life and how we lead our lives," says Pearson-Cramer.

"We're not just case workers who haven't experienced any of it," she says. "Our experiences are why we're doing this, why we're involved in the first place. They effect every decision and contact we make."

Jennifer Zulk says she saw a difference when All About U started helping the couple. "They answered all our questions, or emailed or called us back immediately, and didn't skirt around anything," she says.

On February 24, 2007, the Zulks got the phone call they had waited for. The couple had been chosen by a birth mother who would have her baby in a few months.

"We both just broke down so hard. It was one of the most amazing phone calls we ever received," Jennifer Zulk says.

Pearson-Cramer and Globke met in 1989 while students at South Dakota State University. After graduation, both taught family and consumer sciences, Globke in Parker and Pearson-Cramer in Ponca, Neb.

They reconnected nearly a decade later.

"We realized we both had a passion for adoption," Pearson-Cramer says. "They had adopted two children, and we were in the process of adopting."

The women helped create a support group in 2001 for prospective and current adoptive parents across the state. It was through that group, Parents of Adoptive Children, Pearson-Cramer and Globke realized a need for a different kind of adoption agency in South Dakota.

In January 2004, the two women got to work researching their idea for a private, non-profit adoption agency. "There were mounds of paperwork in the state licensing process," Pearson-Cramer says.

Three years after the women set out to create an agency, they placed their first child with a family in an open adoption. Globke's sister-in-law, Melissa Globke, chose to place her daughter up for adoption and selected the Zulk's as the parents.

"It was very fulfilling. To match a child and a family is a very exciting process," Pearson-Cramer says.

The agency's client base comes to them by word of mouth, the owners say. Globke says it's one of the agency's short-term goals to recruit more families and birth families into the adoption process.

Zulk gives a good reference.

"I know for a fact if it wasn't for them, we would not have a child," she says.