Meet Jennie, The Director

People often ask me how and why I became an adoption worker.

I find it amazing that some people can make plans for their lives and have their lives follow that plan. My life has seldom been like that. This includes my choice of occupations. As a teen I wanted to be a vet but somehow ended up becoming a high school English teacher for a number of years and, later, returned to graduate school to become a social worker.

While I was struggling to finish my graduate degree, I was offered the opportunity to counsel a young woman who planned to place her baby for adoption. I had never considered or planned on becoming an adoption social worker. But after working with this young mother, I knew this is what I wanted to do. This chance encounter changed my life.

This birthmother taught me a great deal. She was unhappy with the adoption process. She wanted to have more of a voice in choosing parents for her child and wanted her child to have the opportunity to know her and her family. But when she entered the world of adoption, these options were not available. Like her, I wondered ”why not”.

This experience started me on a life long journey to provide birthmothers with more adoption options and a passionate desire to create a caring, respectful adoption process that was sensitive to the needs of birthparents.

So for approximately 25 years I have listened to birthmothers of all ages, continually incorporating their ideas into my adoption practice. The creation of Adoption Resource and Counselling Services or ARCS came into being as a result of the many birthparents who have shared their adoption journey with me.  Today, ARCS is a leader in the world of open adoption.

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