Nia Vardalos offers a look into her life as an adoptive mom and into her new book "Instant Mom" in the just-released April 2013 issue of Adoptive Families magazine. For Nia Vardalos and husband, Ian Gomez, the journey to parenthood was a longtime in the making.
"It's been several months since Ian and I have been cleared as a foster home -- and over nine years of trying to be parents -- and we're still waiting for that elusive match," she writes. "Yes, impossibly, I am optimistic. I feel the phone will ring. One day it does."
When Vardalos and Gomez finally met their daughter, the connection was instant. That's not to say, though, that the process was easy.
"Even thought it was challenging, it was interesting how she slowly learned to trust us, and it is, of course, the most rewarding thing that's ever happened to us," she tells the magazine.
According to the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, upwards of 127,000 children are in foster care and eligible to be adopted. Among the many myths surrounding foster care adoption is that it's expensive and risky. Agencies like the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption are working to dispel those myths and help find families for the thousands of children who both want and need them.
Nia Vardalos, her husband, Ian Gomez, and the thousands of other adoptive parents in the U.S. know that the work, the emotions and the wait times that are sometimes brought on by adoption are more than worth it.
"Parents who got to adopt kids...we all share a secret," says Vardalos. "We got invited to a club we didn't think we would ever get into."
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