Lt. Governor speaks out in Bay State Parent
"People always call adoption a 'leap faith' and that's certainly true," says Massachusetts Lt. Governor Tim Murray in an exclusive interview, inside the November issue of Bay State Parent magazine. "There are more unknowns than knowns. But anyone who's gone through a process of having a child - whether it's by giving birth or by adoption - knows it's something you can't fully appreciate until the child is in your arms. At that moment, everything else falls away and you understand it was all worthwhile."

Murray and his wife, Tammy, in a rare interview, talk about the adoption of their two daughters from Guatemala and the bicultural experience the family is creating inside and outside their Worcester home.

The Murrays brought home Helen Roowina, now ½, in December 2005 when she was just nine months old. In May 2007, they welcomed Katerine Mariela, called "Kati," when she was 15 months old.

Award-winning freelance writer Kate M. Jackson spent a morning with the family at their home.

The Murrays are not alone in creating a family through adoption.

Over the last three decades more than a quarter million children have been adopted by America families. International adoptions in the United States have more than doubles in the last decade. And in Massachusetts, international adoptions, as well as foster parenting and domestic adoptions, are on the rise.

November is National Adoption Awareness Month.

Bay State Parent is an award-winning monthly parenting magazine with a free, audited circulation of 40,000.

The magazine's main office is located in Millbury, Massachusetts, and is part of the Holden Landmark Corp.