ROGERS — Imagine a room full of children who have been adopted. Imagine the children in the room numbering 1,000.
Now imagine being the person responsible for placing all 1,000 children with loving families.
It is a figure that even Gene Kelley finds staggering.
Kelley, a much sought-after adoption attorney in Rogers, has been working tirelessly for more than 30 years to connect birth mothers with couples seeking adoption. Working with adoptions has been both gratifying and eventful for Kelley, and he will be the first to say the process, with its fragile emotions, time sensitivity and delicate legal process, is not without its drama. But the process of connecting a child to a desiring couple can also at times be nothing less than spiritual.
“I always say, ‘Adoptions take place when two prayers are answered at the same time,’” Kelley said.
And Kelley should know, after witnessing countless adoptions come to fruition, even when the circumstances are less than favorable. Some days, an unexpected call from a birth mother somewhere in the state is all it takes to set the ball in motion for an adoption.
“Without hesitation, Gene Kelley will get up in the middle of the night and drive to visit a birth mother,” said Gerry Whiting, a parishioner at St. Stephen Parish in Bentonville who has adopted two children through Kelley. “He is a man of prayer and action and allows God to work through him to help families become families.”
When a call does come through a personal hotline, Kelley wastes no time in getting into his car and making the trip to personally speak with a birth mother and begin to facilitate work to place the infant or child in a caring home. Situations such as this call for experience, nerves of steel and a keen sense of knowing people. Whiting believes it was Kelley’s calm demeanor that made both of their adoptions possible.
The Whitings were in the midst of pursuing a Russian adoption when they sought out Kelley’s help. Bogged down with red tape and paperwork of the international process, the couple longed for a baby sooner.
“It was in God’s hands, and we were very open to his will,” Whiting said, “but adoption can be a roller coaster.”
At the end of an adoption journey full of twists and turns, the Whitings did get their first baby, but almost gave up on a second even though Kelley continued to look for them.
“The adoption went through because of the way Kelley managed it,” Whiting said. “Gene gives emotional support to both the birth mother and the couple, and he chooses the right people for the baby, always going that extra mile. He’s not just an attorney, this is a ministry for him.”
But, at 74, Kelley has had time to glean that kind of wisdom.
A Jersey boy by birth, Kelley came to Arkansas 53 years ago and earned a law degree from the University of Arkansas School of Law. He married his wife Joye and they have raised five children, three of whom are lawyers. Through the years he has spent time as a special justice on the Arkansas Supreme Court, ran Dale Bumpers’ campaign in northwest Arkansas and served as executive secretary to Bumpers when he became governor.
Following the end of Bumpers gubernatorial term, the Kelley family moved back to Rogers. In 1981, after advising a New York attorney in Rogers about a local adoption, he began developing his own practice for adoptions and later formed Arkansas Adoption Services. He has been recognized by four national adoption publications and awarded the U.S. Congressional Award as Angel in Adoption.
Although his circle includes such notable Arkansans, Kelley contends it is his clients that have left the biggest impression on him over the years.
“To me the most impressive people I have come across are my birth mothers and adoptive parents,” he said.
When this year’s 2014 National March for Life campaign focused on adoption instead of political speeches and abortion opponents, the idea was to encourage “mothers facing an unexpected pregnancy to choose adoption,” said Jeanne Monahan, March for Life president. Organizers hope to see an increase in adoptions and to eliminate the stigma of adoptions by promoting it as a “noble alternative.”
“Being an adoptive family has revealed God’s love in so many beautiful ways: in the heroic act of love and bravery these young women show in not only choosing life for their child, but also choosing to help build beautiful families where their child can thrive,” said Mary Dufour, a St. Vincent de Paul parishioner who adopted one of her two adopted children through Kelley. “These women give hope to couples who feel hopeless. They are true heroes.”
