Feb. 10, 2009.
Hello Everyone. Welcome to our adoption story... As all of you know, it is still a work in progress.
~A little About Us~
We met over coffee, actually over a tall double mocha to be exact.
We got married about year later.
We the moved to England. You know, where the Queen lives, and the place where real "football" is popular.
Almost 2 years ago, we were stationed back in the US. We now live in Minot, ND. It is about 30 minutes from Canada, just in case you wanted to know. It borders Kasey's home state of Montana. So far, we have found, ND is full of really good soup, we have the coolest mom in the world living with us, yes, you read right, and it snows here... a lot.
There are a couple of extra facts you must know about us. we are huge Red Sox fans, some would say fanatics. We spend a lot of time in the summer on our front porch swing. We also both keep trying to help the community in which we live, through our work and volunteering. Matt is a cop in the USAF. Kasey works in human services, with children and domestic violence.Our work means a lot to us. Our dogs are definitely part of our family as well. Our family means the world to us, and our friends are family.
Our next step for our family is adoption. This blog, particularly, is to keep you all updated on our adoption process.
We started researching the different types of adoptions almost a year ago. There are a lot of different kinds of adoptions; interstate adoptions, international, domestic, special needs, private, open and semi-open adoptions. We contacted every agency we could and made appointments with all the local placing agencies. After sitting down and looking at it all, the financial and time frames, state laws, country laws, and all of those factors, we made a decision to adopt through AASK. This is Adults Adopting Special Kids. We are adopting a "special needs" child. This can mean a lot of things, a different race, a child over than 7, children in sibling groups, kids with medical needs, emotional needs and or special learning needs. These children are all in foster care. The child's and children have had parental rights taken away at this point and are legally able to be adopted.
We are not foster parents. This sometimes is confusing to people because we are adopting through foster care. There are many children in foster care that need permanency. some will be adopted by their foster parents, others will reunify with family, and others will be legally put up for adoption. The last option is the way we plan to adopt.
We have been asked a lot about why we do not want a baby, or if we are ok with all the attachment problems, if we know what are chances are of getting a bad kid,and other silly things. So lets get this all cleared up now. We would love an infant, however, that is not the only option our heart is set on. We would feel blessed to let any child enter our home. Because a child may not be a cuddly infant it does not mean it deserves any less love than a baby. There are approx. 500,000 children in foster care in our country alone. We also know that most of the times bonds are not instant. We are not expecting for this to be easy. We also absolutely know this is going to take a lot of work. Trust is not easy to gain, and we will have to share with this child that they can. Next, everyone sees those movies or stories about the kids that were adopted as older children and ended up bad to the bone and often it is blamed on the fact that they were too old when they were adopted to be good. Not many people look at the amazingly positive side of adoption. There are many families who are wonderful that have gone through this process.
We are working with a really cool lady, from adoptuskids, thanks to our Auntie Beth. She found her and she really helps get the ball rolling with military families. Awesome.
You can actually go online and look at photo listings as well. Most states have Heart Galleries, these are pictures and write ups on waiting children. We are focusing a lot on areas in the country where we have people we can stay with. Here are a couple websites you can see waiting children, browse through them if you want!
www.lanecountyheartgallery.org (Carrie this is a heart gallery for your area, that we are hopeful for!)
And there are so many more!
To all those soon to be aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents of our adopted blessing, there is a great website where you can order all sorts of books about adoption, if you want to learn more on your own.
Also, you can always head down to your local library and pick a couple up for free. (Give a holla to the fantastic librarians!!! Esp. the ones in Springfield OR!)
We will be starting our PRIDE training, part of our home study process the last weekend of Feb. After that, we will be posting more about what we have learned.
Keep us in your thoughts, that this process goes the way it should, and that our family can grow to the size it is meant to.
Matt and Kasey
Kase & Matt, you are both in our hearts and prayers, as your new child will be! We know you will make wonderful parents and we can hardly wait to welcome the newest member of the family!
ReplyDeleteLove you lots, Auntie B & Uncle J
May God bless your exciting journey! I will be anticipating every update. I love you guys!
ReplyDelete