Wednesday, June 13, 2007

looking for blessings

We attended a foster care and adoption orientation meeting last night with a non-profit group called DePelchin. They have been coordinating foster care and adoption for the state for a long time. They are one of the bigger organizations to work with children in foster care in the state of Texas.

Some good things we learned about foster care to adoption:
  • There are a lot of good kids that need homes.
  • Foster to adopt will allow for quicker placement of a child in our home.
  • There is a lot of support offered to families who adoption children in foster care.
  • Parents of adopted foster care children are given continuing support even after the finalization of adoption.
  • Kids have been in foster care will get free college tuition to Texas schools.
  • We can learn more about an older child as to their abilities, interests, and personalities than we can with a baby.
  • We can match (to a degree) our interests and personality with your child-to-be.
  • Older children can interact and play with us. We can DO things right from the beginning with your child: take hikes, plant bulbs, bake cookies, roller blade.
  • With an older child, we may be given a window into their past lives. They may have special memories of grandparents, or favorite foods. We can help them retain and synthesize their memories of their past lives.

There are, of course, disadvantages to older child adoption, just as there are disadvantages and advantages to adopting babies or having kids in general (sleepless nights, messy diapers, sassy teenagers) but the trials of being a parent are greatly out weighted by the benefits. We are encouraged by knowing that we can work together to love and support our family.

No matter how children come into our life, it's a bit like most of life - lots of wonderful moments mixed in with enough challenges to make sure we appreciate the good times!

Has anyone had experiences with foster care? Please share our insight with us.

We are still considering several options. This month we have appointments with LDS Family Services (for infant adoption), a fertility specialist, and foster care. We want to keep our minds open to inspiration and suggestions.

-Lonnie and Alisa

2 comments:

  1. Alisa,



    Hi. I finally got a chance to spend some time looking at your blog today. I especially like all the pictures on it. And it makes my heart break that you and Lonnie don’t have kids yet. I heard part of a story about foster care on KCPW yesterday; I think they interviewed a girl who had gone through foster care. I don’t know if you’re interested but here’s the link: http://www.kcpw.org/article/3751


    I was fun to talk to you other night.ons for granting amnesty.


    I hope you have a good weekend.

    Cec

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  2. Hi...I just happened upon your blog from an LDS blogroll on adoptions.com

    Interestingly, the day you made this post was the day we became foster parents for the first time. We got our child a week after we were certified and have been called about many other children (including newborns) in the past 5 months.

    It has, so far, been a wonderful experience for us and we are on the road to adopting our foster son!

    You are free to check out my blog to see the experiences we've had with foster care and adoption. Just click on the labels marked "J" and adoption and foster care off to the right!

    Hope this helps you some!

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