I was so excited to find this thread, then disappointed to find no one talking. Can we start this up again?? I so want to share my darling adopted daughter with you.
My husband and I were foster parents to drug exposed infants. When our darling Ally came to us at 7 weeks, she was nearly impossible to care for. She had all the classic symptoms of drug addiction, plus some of her own! but we perserveered and fell hopelessly in love with her. When she became available for adoption, we applied and were accepted in spite of our age, because ours was the only home she had ever known. The adoption was finalized a year and a half ago. We love her so much! Our grown kids, and grandchildren all love her, too.
Looking forward to hearing other stories of adoption!
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DIANNE When life hands you lemons, throw the frickin' things on the compost, and make a double chocolate sundae
What a beautiful story!!! I do not have any adopted children but have been looking into doing some foster care. I have a very close friend who has 3 daughters of her own, 2 foster daughters and 1 adopted son(through foster care) who has downs. She asked the agency to consider placing him for adoption as she had to go through heart surgery and many other medical tests since birth. She knew she would be very attached going through all of that with him and the thought of him leaving would tear her apart. He is now 5 and the sweetest little guy and last year for christmas the agency finally gave the family thier best gift.....his adoption papers! He has never know any other family and he is given so much love and is thriving well above expectations.
How old is your daughter now??? That is wonderful that their are families like yours who are willing to give a child a chance to grow up in a loving and caring enviroment.
Hugs Debbie
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Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Our Ally turned 5 the end of June. We got her at 7 weeks.
At one time we had five kids!! We had four one year olds and one two year old!! We were foster parents to three, and our son moved in, then got custody of his two young daughters, and they moved in, too!!
Right now we are not fostering. We have three little girls living here...Ally (5), Brianna (grand daughter 6), Cheyenne (grand daughter 4 1/2). It'll either keep us young, or kill us!!
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DIANNE When life hands you lemons, throw the frickin' things on the compost, and make a double chocolate sundae
You must be very busy!!! That is so great that you can do this for these girls..... I have ever heard people say that young ones do keep you young at heart. It takes very special families to open their hearts and homes to children who need that love and security!!!
So how many children have you fostered in total??? Were they all young or did you have some older kids too?? What were some of the challenges you faced???
Hugs Debbie
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Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Let's see......a total number of littles we have fostered.......hmmmmmmmmmmmm. I'm going to take a guess at 20/25 over the years. We fostered three different times over the years.
It's hard to give them up after you have poured your heart and time into them. That's the biggest challenge for me. We love newborns here at our house, so that's what we request. The oldest child was 3 1/2 years. All others have been drug exposed newborns right from the hospital, usually. We have had neglected little ones, too. One baby was 6 months old, and was abandoned by his 16 year old mom. She left to make a 6 hour phone call! A neighbor called DHS when she kept hearing him cry. He had the most horrendous diaper rash I've ever seen or heard of. We took him to the dr the day after we got him because of the diaper rash. He had three different kinds of infection going on there in that area. He was on antibiotics by mouth, and as a cream on the infected area. The pediatrician was horrified at what he saw! We had him almost a whole year, and DHS gave him back to his mom! Now that's hard for us. We had a beautiful infant baby girl whose mom THREW HER OUT THE DOOR! Neighbors called DHS and the police when they saw her do that. We had the baby overnight, and she was returned to her mom! I cried. Fostering is really tough on the emotions. But I still would do it again in a heartbeat!
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DIANNE When life hands you lemons, throw the frickin' things on the compost, and make a double chocolate sundae
Wow I admire your perseverance! I found taking care of a newborn to be overwhelming so taking care of one who had drug-related problems is an amazing feat to me. Our world is blessed to have people like you.
Dianne wow 25 kids over the years!!!!! What a blessing you have been to so many children. Do any of them keep in touch with you or do you know where they are??? A friend of mine fostered for years and 2 of the kids still keep in touch and bring there children by to see her.
Hugs Debbie
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Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Hi,
I really enjoyed reading this thread. We have been blessed by getting to adopt our 3 foster children. Two girls now 5 and 3 and a boy 2. They are siblings 3 of 5. They were neglected, the boy came to us 6 months later at the age of 3 months after they tested the birthmother for methamphetamines. She tested positive for them when she was first pregnant and they didn't know she was pregnant at the time. Anyway he isn't showing any problems and is on target. Thank God! The girls are smart and beautiful. These children are so pretty, the birthmother makes pretty babies. It's hard to believe anyone would neglect these gifts God gave us.
I was wondering if you got any subsidy with your child. We did because they are a sibling group. It sure does help.
We get some subsidy for Ally because of some developmental challenges. We get our regular foster care subsidy. The specialist who sees her every 6 months says he looks some problems as she goes to school longer. She has a great long term memory, it's the short term that challenges her. It helps that our two young grand daughters also live here with us. They really help Ally to hang onto things as she learns them.
Yes, we believe that our Ally is pretty special. Plus, she is a beautiful child. She is her bmom's seventh child....and the bmom does not have any of them. She did fight to keep Ally, but kept testing positive for drugs. When she requested a hair test be done, her attorney tried to talk her out of it, but she insisted. Guess she thought if she cut her hair, and dyed it, nothing would show up....wrong! Even the Indian Nation was shocked at what all showed up in that test. So she finally sent her attorney into court to sign away her rights. Because the bdad had no attorney, and didn't show up in court anyway, the judge signed away his rights also.
If we were younger, we would adopt more. It's great!
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DIANNE When life hands you lemons, throw the frickin' things on the compost, and make a double chocolate sundae
What a lovely story. I am also an adoptive mom and wouldn't change it for the world! We adore our 11 year old daughter. I would love to adopt again but the wait list for adoption here in Newfoundland is aprox 12 years...*sigh*. We have thought about fostering but I am pretty sure I would suffer heart break when the time came for the kids to move on.
