(Oregon Right to Life) — Oregon will celebrate a statewide “Adoption Day” for the first time on August 25 after lawmakers unanimously approved a bill put forward by a pro-life representative this year.
During the 2025 legislative session, Oregon lawmakers passed House Bill 2019 to establish August 25 as “Oregon Adoption Day.” Republican Representative Lucetta Elmer, the carrier and presenting sponsor of the bill, said the date was one of deep personal significance.
“The day this bill recognizes is not just a date on a calendar: It’s my day. The day I was adopted,” Rep. Elmer said.
“Adoption is an act of courage,” Elmer explained on the House floor. “It requires sacrifice, selflessness, and a whole lot of faith from all sides. It weaves together lives in ways that reflect the best of our humanity, and it is worthy of recognition.”
During work sessions, numerous members of the legislature came forward to share the ways adoption had impacted their own lives – including those who had been adopted themselves as children and others who have adopted children or grandchildren.
Elmer said that HB 2019 is meant to create a “moment of acknowledgment for the thousands of Oregonians, children, birth parents, adoptive families, and support systems who walk through the transformative journey of adoption.”
For Elmer, “Oregon Adoption Day” shines “a light on the beauty of adoption” and sends “a message to every adopted child in Oregon: You are seen. You are loved. And you matter.”
Oregonians Share Their Adoption Stories:
Oregon Right to Life reached out to members of the pro-life community statewide, asking them to share their personal connections with adoption. The responses represent a range of connections to adoption and a shared gratitude for the way adoption has impacted their lives.
Nadine Kincaid was adopted in Oregon – but would later learn that her biological family lived on the other side of the world in New Zealand!
Nadine Kincaid was adopted in June 1955 in Portland and was joined two years later by an adopted brother.
“We had a wonderful upbringing, and I never questioned being adopted because I knew and accepted that God had placed me exactly into the right family for me,” she said. “Because of that, I never had a burning ‘need’ to find my birth parents.”
It was only after she began experiencing autoimmune complaints as an adult that she was spurred to learn about her birth parents to find out whether her health challenges were hereditary. But she was still hesitant. She sought out and obtained her original birth certificate, discovering that her birth mother was from New Zealand. But she decided not to investigate further at the time.
In 2014, after her adoptive parents had passed away, Kincaid’s daughter took an Ancestry.com DNA test that revealed that she had relatives still living in New Zealand. One day, Kincaid’s daughter (who had gotten in touch with some of her cousins) called and told her that Kincaid’s mother was still alive, though very ill – and that she had five siblings.
Kincaid began to communicate with her newfound relatives, who were originally very surprised to learn that they had another sister. Despite the unusual circumstances and the long distance, they began to forge a close connection. That’s when one of Kincaid’s sisters arranged with her husband and daughter to travel to the U.S. to surprise Kincaid on her birthday.
Adoption Has Been a ‘Blessing’:
– Melinda Bangle.
“Our extended family has been blessed to be able to do two adoptions. My niece was adopted. And my grand nephew was adopted. It’s been a blessing to watch these children [g]row into wonderful young adults.”
“[T]hat began a wonderful time of getting to know each other in person, learning family history, and discovering how much we had in common,” she shared.
In 2018, Kincaid was finally able to travel to New Zealand and meet her birth mother.
The meeting would be bittersweet.
“She suffered from dementia, and had no recognition of me until my last day there when I did tell her who I was,” Kincaid said. “God opened the windows of her mind for a brief moment for her to realize who I was. I had the privilege of caring for the woman who birthed me, and to tell her I had had a great life, great adoptive parents, and I loved Jesus.”
Her mother would pass away two weeks later.
Kincaid still doesn’t know who her biological father is – and, after her mother’s passing, believes she likely never will. But she expressed gratitude for being adopted and for later having the opportunity to connect with her biological family members.
“Being adopted has been such a blessing for me, and meeting my maternal birth family has given me roots and a better understanding of who I am,” she said.
Adoption transformed the Hartwigs’ marriage from being a couple struggling to conceive to being the parents of five.
“Each [child] is a story of God’s handiwork, working through people, situations, and changing us in ways beyond our imagination,” Linda Hartwig told Oregon Right to Life.
Mike and Linda Hartwig had been married for eight years but had been unable to conceive. On her twenty-eighth birthday, Linda received a “special gift” from her husband – the green light to begin exploring adoption.
“Just that week, I had said, ‘Lord, I give you my childlessness. It is not my burden to carry. It is too heavy for me. You know what is right for our lives so much better than I do,’” Hartwig shared.
Once her husband was on board, Hartwig began researching. Her sister helped out, calling the Christian Pregnancy Assistance Center in Klamath Falls after hearing the organization’s director speak on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday in January of 1990. Harwig wrote an adoption resume with details about the life and the home she and her husband could offer a child.
‘I Highly Recommend It!’
– John & Jane Reding
“We were lucky to have adopted our third child, a daughter, after our two sons, when Jane was told another pregnancy would endanger her life. Michelle was a delightful child and continues to be a thoughtful, empathetic mom with her husband and two sons. In the words of her 13 year old, ‘I highly recommend it!’”
A week later, she received a call from Cindi at the pregnancy center: a young pregnant woman was seeking to place her baby with a childless Christian couple in the area. The Hartwigs prayed, hesitated, then stepped out in faith. They submitted their file, and out of eight couples, the young mom chose them to be the adoptive parents of her baby. The process wasn’t immediately smooth – the young mom needed a C-section, and it was originally unclear whether she might need financial assistance: something the Hartwigs didn’t think they could provide. But the young mom’s insurance from her former employer was able to cover her at the last moment, and the adoption moved forward.
“From the day I first talked to Cindi to the day we were chosen was barely over one month. We brought baby Rebekah Lynnae home four months later,” Hartwig said. “With all the orchestrated events that took place, God clearly had chosen Rebekah to be in our family. In every way, she was our daughter as if she had been born to us.”
Hartwig said she and her husband “were so thankful for this very great gift.” But they desired an even larger family, and they would get one.
“God provided two more baby girls [three] years later,” she said. “Their birthdays were almost exactly three months apart.”
A ‘Wonderful Choice’
– Mary Fassell.
“I have an awesome brother-in-law because his parents were willing to adopt him! I honor Larry and Mary Mustell for their wonderful choice 75 years ago.”
The Hartwig family would continue to grow, this time with additions from outside the U.S. (learn more about the Hartwigs here).
“[I]n 1998 God sent us to Ukraine where we met our youngest two children,” Hartwig said. “They were in an orphanage in the capital of Crimea. Once again, God provided in ways that we would never have expected; opening doors, closing others, working a miracle not for us but for our helpers. After one such miracle, our driver told us, ‘This miracle was for me. I knew that God is a [G]od of miracles and has authority, but didn’t believe [H]e had power over government officials.’”
Today, from originally being unable to conceive, the Hartwigs’ family now includes nine grandchildren and counting.
“Our youngest son, Nicholas, and his wife were blessed with the birth of their first child this year on Mother’s Day,” she said. “Baby Alder joins eight cousins that have been added to our family over the last nine years.”
Do you have a personal connection to adoption you’d like to share? Comment below or submit the form at ortl.org/oregon-adoption-day/ to share your story with the pro-life community.
