Jane never really expected that she and her husband would be able to adopt a baby. There were too many odds stacked against them. Theirs was a mixed marriage, so they were ineligible to adopt through the largest, Catholic, adoption agency. To complicate matters further, she had been married before. That marriage had been annulled by the church, and her second marriage solemnised in a church before 200 guests. But they did not sign the register, so they were not legally married.

With a history of gynaecological problems, including two ectopic pregnancies, she had come to realise she could never have children. As part of coming to terms with this she started the Infertility Support Group, which quickly gathered momentum. The media needed a public face to this new group, and she was it.

While this was in full swing, she got a call from a friend who asked her what would happen if a pregnant teenager wanted to place her child for adoption herself. Jane outlined the procedures.

The friend then asked her if she would be prepared to adopt this child. She was stunned. It emerged that the young woman in question was the child-minder of a mutual friend, had seen Jane on television speaking about infertility, and had decided she wanted someone like her to adopt her baby.

She and her husband, a lawyer, decided to meet her. "It was crazy! But why would you walk away from it?

"We met her and we liked each other. She was 18, she had got pregnant and her boyfriend disappeared when he found out. She was adopted herself, and she had very definite views about that.

"She was positive about adoption, but she knew nothing about the circumstances of her own adoption and she felt really strongly that she wanted her child to know the reasons for her decision and to be able to contact her. She was also adamant that the adoptive parents would be the real parents.

"We knew she had to have independent counselling and independent legal advice, and that we could have no involvement in it. We knew the hospital care would be free. She got counselling from Barnardos and she chose a solicitor herself, whom we paid for."

They got to know each other well during the pregnancy, and all seemed to be going smoothly, but then difficulties arose. The birth was very late, the girl was in hospital for weeks, the boyfriend reappeared and said he wanted her to keep the baby, saying his mother would look after it.

Jane and her husband could not interfere and could not visit the girl in case it seemed they were putting pressure on her. What was hardest was thinking she would feel they had abandoned her.

"A lot of her friends gave her a hard time. There was a really strong cultural thing among them that you don't give away your baby.

"Then we got a call from the hospital to come and see Cathy and her baby. He was just a day old, and she really wanted to symbolically hand him to me in the hospital, though then I gave him back.

"Her solicitor collected her from the hospital after six days and we all met and the baby was handed over. We registered with the health board as foster parents with a view to adoption." Meanwhile, their marriage had been regularised.

Jane and her husband were visited by social workers from the Adoption Board and the Eastern Health Board. Many months passed and they were called in for interview. They were seen separately.

"They asked me all sorts of questions about my relationship with the mother, and whether money had changed hands. They went through me for three hours without a break."

They also asked about her friends, suggesting they had arranged the adoption, which was illegal.

By now Cathy, the mother, had emigrated to the US. "They insisted she fly back and see them though she was in danger of not being able to re-enter the US. They interviewed her for hours without a break. She was so upset afterwards; she said she cried and smoked throughout. They asked her what kind of person was she to give her baby to strangers, and did she not know that selling babies was illegal.

"She returned to the States freaked out. Was the baby going to be taken away? Would he end up in an orphanage? Had she messed everything up? She never heard from them afterwards."

Jane understands why the Adoption Board had to be so careful. But it was very frustrating. "It got so there was nothing else we could tell them. You laid bare your soul, and nothing was happening."

Then her husband got a job abroad. But they did not have a passport for the child, now almost two, and did not know what to do. They engaged a barrister, who set in train judicial review proceedings against the Adoption Board. A week later the adoption order came through.

Jane is still in touch with Cathy, who visited them when her baby was about a year old and saw them all together as a family. She was very happy she did so, and this inspired her to go and look for her own natural parents.