For Baltimore Sun reporter Yvonne Wenger, years of unsuccessful pregnancy attempts turn what should be cheerful moments — greeting neighbors and their children, celebrating friends' baby showers — into torment. The struggle brought thousands of dollars in medical bills and nearly tore her marriage apart, but never shattered her hope of becoming a parent. What might have been an ending for some families was only a beginning for hers. She and her husband Artie could have never predicted where they would end up.

Yvonne's story is also being told in words, pictures and video at baltimoresun.com/thewait.

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Yvonne realizes she should have sought answers sooner about why she wasn't getting pregnant. In the beginning, though, she was prioritizing her career, and research she read online said it could take time. When she finally saw a specialist, her diagnosis was scary. Months of tests and procedures still couldn't guarantee a safe pregnancy and healthy child. Yvonne and her husband considered adoption. But their conscience kept pulling them toward foster parenting. They had an empty room, and there were plenty of children in their own city who needed one.

Yvonne's story is also being told in words, pictures and video.

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Foster care is intended to keep children safe until their parents are ready to care for them again. However, in thousands of cases a year, it's concluded adoption is what's best for the child. Most of the children adopted in the United States, in fact, are adopted through foster care. We step away from Yvonne’s story to look at this bigger picture. How are children placed in foster care? How do they leave it? How could the system work better? We brought these and other questions to Richard Barth, dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland.

Yvonne's story is also being told in words, pictures and video. The presentation includes an animated graphic showing how and how many children move through foster care in Yvonne’s home state of Maryland and a chance to ask questions about the system.

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