In the early eighties, Peggy Weber, a single mom and speech and language therapist, adopted three special needs children--Alan, Maurice and Mindy--through AASK. Now 38, Alan is competing in the Special Olympics as an ice dancer. Maurice, 33, lives independently with other men also living with mental health issues. A self-employed Mindy is 31 and raising her eight-and-a-half year old daughter named Luna. Courtney, Peggy's youngest adopted through a private agency, is now 22, a business major at Santa Rosa Junior College, and a singer. Peggy "like[s] being the parent of adult children. Although we don't live together now, we're still very much a family. I'm so proud of all of them."

Michele Scatena and her husband adopted Tony and Angela, two drug-exposed infants through AASK. Both children had medical, behavioral, and mental health challenges. Tony was mainstreamed in his senior year of high school and graduated last year with his class. Angela works hard in her resource and special day classes and is looking forward to her junior prom in the spring. "Tony and Angela are our children," Michele says. "They are our family's brother, sister, nephew, niece, cousin, grandchildren. We have watched them struggle and overcome obstacles that lots of kids never experience. They are stronger because they have survived, but they are also loving and kind. We are grateful to have been given the chance to parent these beautiful children, and we are so proud of the individuals they have become."

After raising two children who are now grown, Dale and Gordon Mizuno wanted to adopt. As Dale told the social worker during their home study, their primary reason for adopting was to "give a child a chance." Little did they know that they would meet a 5-year old boy named Chance at an adoption picnic and fall in love with him! Now 7, Chance enjoys singing, dancing, all things High School Musical, and participates in Japanese Taiko drumming, basketball, baseball and soccer. The Mizunos strongly encourage other families to take a "chance" with adoption.

Lupe was 3; Victor, 4; Gissella, 6; and Moises almost 10 when they all moved in with Juliana DeFriese and Susan Rapp in May of 2006. "We totally underestimated the challenges that come with going from zero kids to four...get [them] to therapy, do homework, learn house rules, become comfortable with us and help them deal with their issues of loss... We've had behavioral issues and Gissella developed Leukemia, but through all of this, the kids continue to remind us how blessed we are to have found them."

The family celebrated their adoption finalizations in the summer of 2007, and Gissella is "doing awesome...laughing, dancing, with a thick head of hair": her cancer has been in remission for over a year. "They are sweet, funny, caring, respectful children that are a joy for everyone to be around. They have all grown so much emotionally."