Congratulations to the OP! Happy for this great news!

Regarding donating miles, kindly keep us posted through this thread here about what you find out. And also please let us know which airline you friends are donating miles in.

Regarding Northwest airlines adoption fares, the last I researched that (for a friend), I was told that the parents have to buy a full-fare economy ticket then the airline will give a slight discount on that fare. This allowed the parents to change dates on the tickets without penalties. However, the full-fare tickets were so highly priced that my friends decided to buy the cheapest fare and risk paying penalties. (However, thank goodness, everything went well for them).

AFAIK, no other US-based-airline had anything posted on the websites regarding adoption. You should really call the individual airlines and see what they can do for you.