Pennsylvania mom talks to trailblazer Marjorie Margolies, who inspired her adoption journey, ahead of Mother’s Day

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Pa. (CBS) — Jennifer Cornley, a special education teacher in Montgomery County, says she always wanted to be a mother.

In January 2021, she began researching adoption and decided she wanted an international adoption.

In October, there was a match.

“I got to review her file and see her photos, and it was an instant ‘yes’ in my heart,” Cornley told CBS News Philadelphia.

Cornley and her mother flew to Vietnam to meet Cara, who had spent her first three years in an orphanage with hundreds of other children.

Cornley describes the moment she first saw Cara.

“She came over and stood with me and then we went and sat on a little bench and played,” she said. “It was awesome.”

Getting to this point wasn’t easy, Cornley said. There were binders full of paperwork, home visits and interviews.

Then she saw a story on CBS News Philadelphia about Marjorie Margolies, who, at age 25 in 1970, was a CBS News correspondent covering a story on “hard-to-place children.”

The story ultimately led Margolies to adopt a little girl from Korea.

“Just hearing that, you know, she did it, she did it as a single person and that her children are home and thriving was just another reminder that this is the journey that you’re on,” Cornley said. “This is the journey that you want and you have always wanted.”

Just days ahead of Cornley’s first Mother’s Day, she had the opportunity to meet Margolies, who offered some motherly advice.

“Listen,” says Margolies, “there will be incredible challenges, but [being a mother], it’s such a wonderful experience, the highs and the lows, just go with it.”

Cara is now focused on learning English. Cornley has some positive words of advice for anyone hoping to become a mother.

“It’s so worth it,” she said. “Every second of her is absolutely worth every second of crying that happened before she came home, you know, every second of waiting and worrying. She is the best.”