Today I want to celebrate the wonderful thing that happened in my life. As you may have read in my earlier posts Pitty-pat, Tippy-toe and Little-man are all adopted. It was the gauntlet of adoptions. See the highlight words and get your score cards out as we went through every kind of adoption but foreign adoption.
The kids are all my relatives as my second cousin is their birth mother[relative adoption]. We have an open adoption which means she can see the kids and I send her pictures and there are occasional phone calls (she initiates these contacts). The kids were in foster care when I got them so I had to go through the Pride training to have them until the adoption was final. I was fingerprinted and had a criminal background check as part of the foster care adoption. The adoption was outsourced to an independent agency Bethany Christian Services.[agency adoption] At one time I counted we had 9 caseworkers all at the same time. It was a very difficult and frustrating 3 1/2 years of my life. I gave up all privacy, something that was very important to me. I spent ***everyday off ***for ***3 1/2 YEARS*** with a social worker, therapist or at a doctors appointment when we didn't have a monthly court date set that day. Sometimes we had two or more in one day just to fit them all in. The kids were 4 and 5 when they came to live with me.[older adoption] Then the baby came to live with us when he was just two weeks old.[infant adoption] My family felt like they were put through hell by DHS. I understand-- but there are ways the process could be improved upon.
It was worth it. We all love these kids. I would do it all again in a heartbeat. There are a few things they don't tell you about foster care adoption but that's another post in itself.
If God calls you to adoption do not be afraid. Everything changes when you adopt. It is a life altering experience. It is a roller coaster ride. It is real life. LIVE IT TO THE FULLEST EVERYDAY!
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