Couple Adopts Baby After Independently Finding Birth Mother Online — and Their Christmas Wish Is to Find Him a Sibling (Exclusive)

For Christmas this year, this Rockaway Beach-based couple is hoping to add another little one to their family.

When Seamus King, 41, and Kate O'Sullivan, 37, welcomed their son James through adoption in 2021, they couldn't believe they were finally able to become parents. "Oh my God, we held him and I sobbed and it was so, so amazing," Kate says of meeting her son for the first time.

The couple, whose meet-cute while playing on their company's softball team in Boston comes straight out of a rom-com, had long been trying to become parents. It seemed like they'd tried everything — after 11 cycles of in vitro fertilization (IVF), multiple miscarriages and an endometriosis diagnosis, the two finally turned to adoption.

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Because they'd gone through so much money with fertility treatments, Kate and Seamus decided not to use an adoption agency, which can be costly, especially in the New York City area. Instead, they chose to go an independent route. After hiring a lawyer, the task of finding a birth mom fell on their shoulders.

"Back in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s, it was churches and newspaper ads and word-of-mouth and things like that," Kate explains of trying to find a birth mom in the past. "But now with social media, it's that. It's Facebook, it's Instagram."

They set up a website that told their whole story and went to social media to create Facebook and Instagram accounts.

"We almost started a little business," jokes Kate. "In that we were trying to market ourselves. We really want to have a kid, this is our story. This is why it hasn't worked out for us in the past, but here's what we're into. Here's what we're like as people. Here's what our family's like. Here's where we live."

Because the couple cast such a wide net on the Internet, they met James' birth mom in only a few months. "A lot of the time, the stories we'd heard and the things that our lawyer was telling us was, 'Buckle up for two years, that's probably what you're signing on for,' " Seamus remembers.

"And so when we made contact with James' birth mother in four months and it was working, we were just like, 'What are these people talking about?'"

But this time around, things haven't been so easy.

"It's been slow-going this time, I think just because we were like, 'Okay, we'll just copy and paste everything we did last time,' " Kate shares. "We're like, 'Oh wow, it's not quite working. We're going to have to rethink this."

Seamus attributes some of the challenges to the fact that this will be the couple's second baby, instead of their first. "I think some people before were more interested in, 'Oh, these people, they're one child for them, type of thing,' " he says. "But now it's just adding to our family."

Although it's been a difficult journey, the couple is excited to grow their family and see their son as a big brother. James, who was the first grandkid on Seamus' side and remains the only grandkid on Kate's side, is close with his grandparents, as well as his younger cousins, who live just a few houses down from him.

"I could just see his life unfolding and I'm so happy," Kate says. "We've given him a great life. And I mean, he has given us way more than we've ever given him. He is just so, so awesome and funny."

"He's becoming, for lack of a better term, a real person," adds Seamus. "He's not a baby. And so liking that, enjoying that has really sort of spurred us to, 'Okay, is it time to think about number two?'"

Kate admits they initially weren't sure if they wanted to have another baby. For them, adoption was such a "pipe dream" that when it worked the first time, they felt like they had everything they ever wanted. But as James got older and entered pre-K, Kate and Seamus realized there was no better time to give their son a little sibling.

"We were like, 'All right.' We want him to have a sibling. And I was like, we still have more love to give. We're still there. We have a house that can support it. Financially we could support it. We want it," Kate says.

"Kate's one of three, I'm one of two. And both of our families beyond our immediate families are also pretty big families," Seamus explains. "And so brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, nieces, all of that is just, the more the merrier. So I think that's leading us down this path."

Now, the couple is three months into the process and hasn't been seeing as much response as when they were trying for their first baby.

"It's hard. It's not easy," Kate admits. "Even when you get a message and it's someone that's saying they're an expectant mom, even though you're like, 'Okay well, this probably isn't going to be the one.' But a little bit, there's a little spark there every time."

"This is going to be just a little bit of a different journey this time. And we got to just buckle up," she continues. "It's worth it though. It's all worth it."

As they looked forward to the years ahead as a family of four, Seamus and Kate can't wait to make memories in their beach-side town.

"Excited for summers on the beach," Kate shares. "When I picture us as a family of four, I'm thinking about all those nights we had on the beach after the summer was over."

"We could bring our dog, Nellie, too, and we'd have dinner up there. Some nights if it was still warm enough, we got this huge bucket of hermit crabs," she continues. "Doing that, but with a family of four. Walking on the beach with James and looking for hermit crabs and looking for shells, with a newborn in a carrier or on my chest."

For Seamus, it's the thought of his kids getting into mischief that he can't wait to witness.

"I just think back to my childhood, [to] my brother and I getting up to no good," he says. "Can't wait to see what that looks like."

"Thinking back to my brother and I, just growing up with him was nice. So James has Nellie the dog, and we had cats growing up, but I think him getting to grow up with siblings is nice," Seamus shares. "Yes, he's got cousins, he's got all that. I think sibling is a tinge different."

To learn more about Seamus and Kate's journey to adoption or to contact them, visit their website here.

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