Domestic Adoption - Designated/Identified Adoption Program

Designated Adoption Stories

Five!...

We recently adopted our fifth child. It has been a great learning experience—as is each adoption story. Our newest addition, Colin, was born in Missouri the end of July. He was one day old when we had found out about him and almost a week old when his birthmother chose us to be his parents. It was a crazy week of planning and packing, washing baby clothes and reorganizing. We left for Missouri with our two oldest—who fondly remember the trip as taking 5 movies to get there and only 4 to get home! We had another potential placement fall through only about a month and a half earlier, so we were traveling with realistic, but excited, anticipation. Half way through Iowa, the foster mom called and confirmed the birthmother was still confident in her decision, much to our relief!! We arrived in Pacific, Missouri, late on Sunday night and the foster mom met us at our hotel with Colin. We were able to keep him with us and then take him to court the next morning to have his birthparents’ rights terminated by a judge—even though they had both signed their consents. All went well and we were back home within a couple of weeks. Everyone has adjusted well to a new baby brother, and Colin loves his new siblings—as long as they keep him as the center of attention!

Without adoption, we would have missed out on so many things. Besides the obvious, becoming parents, raising children, and growing our family, we would have missed out on the many wonderful and amazing people we now have in our lives--most importantly, the birthparents of our children. We have varying degrees of contact with all of our children’s birthmothers and we value every day the difficult choice they had to make. We love having them in our lives and the children will always be able to ask those hard questions and know where some of their likes and dislikes have come from. We have also met so many great social workers through our adventures, and many have become Christmas card recipients over the years! We also thank God for his handiwork in our lives and family. We are truly blessed!

By Brenda and Kyle