Golf, Glorious Golf



Team Surgical Associates of North Texas. 

We should have had an award for

Best Dressed!

This past Friday (October 8, 2010) 87 golfers gathered at Coyote Ridge Golf Club as part of the 2nd Annual Friends of deVille Golf Tournament:  Another Shot FORE Children, presented by Surgical Associates of North Texas, benefiting Dallas Adoption agency Hope Cottage.  The weather was superb, the greens called and more people turned out than we were expecting.  Best of all, we doubled the income raised over last year's tournament.  All the monies raised benefited the programs at Hope Cottage which include domestic adoption, foster-to-adopt, adoption education , services to birth mothers, family counseling and post adoption services. 

The tournament was started by one of our own Hope Babies, Todd deVilleneuve.  He called us last year and said he wanted to do something for the agency that has meant so much to his family.  His friends call him "deVille", hence the name of the tournament - Friends of deVille.  Scott's father, Allan deVilleneuve, MD is a local pediatrician who stills sees Hope Babies as part of his practice.  Brother Scott deVilleneuve, MD of Surgical Associates of North Texas was also adopted from Hope Cottage.  Mom Virginia rounds out the deVilleneuve clan and they pull out all the stops recruiting family and longtime friends to make the tournament a rousing success. 

Third place, with a score of 62, went to The Davis Team.  2nd place was taken by Surgical Associates of North Texas Team #1 with a score of 60 and First Place was grabbed by Joe Coursy, Mike Doeden, Patel Pranay and Kyle Stevens. 

First Place Winners with the Traveling Trophy

Scott Meyer won for Closest to the Pin and Anthony Saitta won the Longest Drive.

Anthony Saitta



Team GEICO


















We would like to thank Surgical Associates of North Texas for being our Title Sponsor and GEICO for being our Lunch Sponsor.  Other Sponsors include: 

• Linda and Franklin Casey, MD
• Gibson Dunn & Crutcher, LLP
• Chris Maberry/Bracewell and Giuliani LLP
• The Dickey Family
• Kyle Stevens
• Lynne and Bob Thompson
• Angie and Roger Wright
• DeVille Custom Homes
• Pilot's Building Maintenance

We had some GREAT raffle prizes and door prizes thanks to Avid Media Ventures, Larry Bisno, Coyote Ridge Golf Club, Diz & Janis Dizdar, Floss Dental, Sonyia and Mike Hartwell, Healthcare Chiropractic, Vince Pellman/Rolling Hills Country Club, PGA Tour Superstore, BarryRay/Armstong Office Concepts, Sigel's Elite, Salum's,  TGI Friday's,  Ron Keene and Mark Cuban.

Another big thank you goes to John Sommers and Graphic Solutions Group for signage. 

To see our entire photo album, visit the Hope Cottage Fanpage on Facebook or Flickr. 

Hope Baby Golf Trio
John Dickey, Todd deVilleneuve, Scott deVilleneuve

Not all golfers are the two legged kind!

Golfers register



Hope Cottage Staff Members
Susan Mathews and  Brooks Quinlan



Putting Contest Volunteers
Lori Crider, Krista Hartman and Mark Neace



Allen and Todd deVilleneuve

Hope Cottage is the oldest nonprofit, non sectarian adoption agency in Dallas. Since 1918 Hope Cottage has been building and nurturing strong families through counseling, education and adoption services.

If you have questions about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 214.526.8721.

If you are a woman facing a crises pregnancy and would like to talk to someone about adoption, please call Hope Cottage at 1.800.944.4464 or 214.404.4546.



An Adoption Story - Brought to You by Hope Cottage

Share this adoption journey and a family made by Hope Cottage. 

Seven years ago Joe and I sat in separate steel chairs as the doctor leaned forward, resting his elbows on his desk, his words betrayed his smile..."I give you no more than a 5% chance of ever having children."  We were devastated.  The dream of our curly, red-headed, freckle-faced, green-eyed child smashed against the white walls.  It wasn't supposed to be this way...but it was.  After that hour passed, we looked at the pieces of our dream that were left.  Our hearts and our hopes had survived in the shards and we held onto them as we made a new path for our journey.

According to our doctor, adoption was our only option.  It was also the safest bet that we would end up with a child.  My search ended at Hope Cottage.  I loved the name.  A name is a bizarre reason to choose an adoption agency, I know, but the reality of our family was dependant on that idea, the idea of hope.  Joe and I combed through the website and absorbed all the information.  Soon we made the initial call.  That call was followed by other calls and orientations and informational sessions and huge binders full of materials.  We made a scrapbook of us to show to perspective birthparents and wrote letters telling about ourselves.  Once a month, we attended a Hope Cottage support group along with other waiting families.  We attended one, then two, then three and so on learning about the legal side of adoptions, birth-families' feelings, and adoptive families' feelings.  We loved learning how to be parents, but wondered along with all the others in the room when we would be.  We jumped when the phone rang hoping it was "the call".  We looked deep into our hearts during the times of helplessness and held strongly to hope that someday all of this would result in a child. 

Eleven months passed, and the phone rang and it was "the call".  We drove anxiously to Dallas wondering what we would say.  When we arrived we learned that Janine, the birthmother we were scheduled to meet, had gone into labor that morning.  We knew we had to meet this little baby boy.  Before we laid eyes on him though, we had to meet with his birthmother.  We called Hope Cottage and set up the second meeting with Janine. 

We met her at a Starbucks in Dallas close the the hospital after she was released.  Scariest first encounter I have ever experienced.  She was tall, blonde, loud, gregarious and just as scared as we were.  The conversation was easy and the answer then was simple.  It was a match.  We met our baby the following day.

The first time we saw him he was hooked up to tubes, but breathing on his own.  Joe held him.  I fed him.  He pooped and I changed him.  Janine was there and smiling.  She asked us what we were going to call him and we told her the name we had decided on during the drive down.  She even asked the nurses to start calling him that name.  We continued to visit daily for the next four weeks.  Joe would work a full day, drive to pick me up and we would drive to Dallas and spend time with our baby.  We held him and sang to him and read to him.  I brought Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little and Baby Island and we went through all of those.  Slowly but surely the tubes came off, and it was time for us to take our baby home.  Years of trying, 11 months of waiting, and now, instant baby.

It didn't matter that he didn't have my curls or green eyes or Joe's red hair and freckles, he had our hearts, our hopes and our dreams.  The shards had come together to make this family.  This is exactly how our life is supposed to be.  We are grateful for the heartache and the frustration and the wait.  We are grateful for Janine.  We are grateful for the feeling of hope. 

Hope Cottage is the oldest non-profit, non-sectarian adoption agency in Dallas.  Since 1918 Hope Cottage has been building and nurturing strong families through education, counseling and adoption services.  To learn more call 214.526.8721. 

Big Hats Rule

Hope Cottage put out a call for pictures of babies in the biggest hats, beating the heat and shielding themselves from the rays of the hot Texas sun. Here is one of the winning photos - baby Chloe in her swim hat. Isn't she a cutie?

For July, we are looking for the Most Patriotic Baby. Post a picture of your little patriot on the Hope Cottage Facebook page by July 10th. Most patriotic baby wins a prize!

All the Little Babies

This is one of my favorite pictures from Hope Cottage - probably because it says so much about our rich history. It was taken in the 1940's and says much about Hope Cottage at the time because we have black and white babies in the same crib. While Dallas was segregated, Hope Cottage was not. The sign is thanking those people who made gifts to Hope Cottage through the Community Chest. For those of you who always wondered what Community Chest was in your Monopoly game, it is what is now the United Way. Hope Cottage is one of the original thirteen agencies in the Dallas Metro United Way and one of only three or four still in existence.

When I first came on board, I would joke about the picture saying "Oh, where was this? At Northpark right next to the SPCA booth?" (laugh and giggle) "Did we put our babies on display?" (giggle, giggle). You can imagine how my giggles stopped when I ran across the articles below. Evidently Hope Cottage DID put their babies in the window. Enjoy another piece from our history.

Hope Cottage Babies Shown in Window Display
(December 1, 1921) One of the most novel features of the Welfare Council campaign is the Hope Cottage window of the Goldsmith Company, corner Ervay and Elm streets. Real babies from Hope Cottage, in charge of nurses, were in the window all day Thursday and each day, including Friday and Saturday.

The purpose of the exhibition is to impress the public with the importance of saving the babies of the poor, as well as the foundlings, that are from time to time placed on door steps. Hope Cottage shares in the proceeds of the welfare campaign. The Goldsmith window is especially heated to take care of the babies, some of whom are less than three months old. Great crowds gathered and blocked sidewalk traffic all day long. The hours for the exhibition of children Friday and Saturday are from 10:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Babies in Store Window Draw Big Crowds
(December 1921) Babies from Hope Cottage had a lark Saturday.

Hope Cottage is one of the 10 agencies supported by the Welfare Council, and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. five bright looking youngsters asked the public to help them.

No, they didn't talk , for they can't. Only "nurse" could understand their language. But out in front of A. Harris large baby display window, men, women and children crowded up close, almost entirely blocking the sidewalks.

In the unusual surroundings, the babies seemed to think it great sport.

"We keep the window heated at the right temperature," said Issac. I. Lorch, secretary of A. Harris & Co.

The nurse heats the milk required by the babies at the lunch counter. The babies are delivered at the new playground by taxi. The girls in the store are "just crazy" over them. "They could pretty near have anything we've got," said Lorch.

On Christmas, the store will remember Hope Cottage babies, in addition to contributions from 50 cents to $5 made by employees for the welfare drive. "I think the babies are the most important of all," declared Lorch.

Each Christmas, the store gets its odds and ends together, dividing perhaps 50 dozens of children hosiery, baby garments and articles taken from broken lots. Last year 16 different charitable organizations, including Hope Cottage, each received a big box.

Hope Cottage Babies Do Their Bit for Charity in Windows of Store

(December 1921) Seven bouncing baby boys from Hope Cottage proved an attractive window display for Goldsmith's store Monday. Mrs. Emma Wylie Ballard, assisted by two undergraduate nurses, transported the tots in taxicabs to and from the home. They are advertising the charity drive.

The youngest boy in the squad was Ben Ward Duncan, born in July, and found three days after (article stops here)

(article continues) We are grateful to the Goldsmith management for making it possible for the Dallas people to see a few of our babies. We invite all interested to visit Hope Cottage and get acquainted with many other darling little ones.

Birthmother Poem

Here is a poem written by one of our recent adoptive mothers. It is too beautiful not to share.

Birthmother Poem

by Shannon Hills

Giver of life

Beacon of hope

Unselfish sacrifice
Beyond the courage of most

Nurturing watchman both day and night

Keeper of the dream until God's appointed time

Some say it was a mistake, an unplanned event

But the heavens rejoice that you chose to commit

To choose life, to give life, not once but twice

Birthmother, I thank you for the ultimate sacrifice!

Your child, our child, will always know

How deeply she was loved in the womb and forever more!