Introduction

Hello! I am hoping to share our journey through parenting with anyone who wants to join us. We are using initials for our names to keep a little privacy for our family. I will refer to myself as Mom and my husband as Dad. This first post will be an introduction to our little family.

I was born in 1955 and Dad was born in 1939. Dad and I have been married since 1973 and have 4 biological children. We currently have 2 adopted sons. We have been a licensed foster/foster to adopt family since May 2009 (but have had no placements yet). Our oldest daughter is S, who is married to P, and has a son, N, born in 2005. Our son is E. Our next daughter is J, married to K, and has a son, Z, born in 2000. Our youngest daughter is M. Our next son is T, born in China in 2000, and adopted in 2006. Our youngest son is W, born in Guatemala in 2001, and adopted in 2008. We are hoping to adopt 1 or 2 more children, perhaps through the foster system.

T has a cleft lip/cleft palate and a learning disability. His cleft lip is repaired but he needs at least 1 more surgery on his palate. T has a language processing disability. He is in 2nd grade and is having trouble with reading (reading at a first grade 6th month level). He is doing fairly well with math. He is also in speech therapy.

W has some attachment issues. He had a heart murmur and enlarged heart due to severe malnutrition/anemia when he was given for adoption, but with proper nutrition that has cleared up. W is in 1st grade and does very well in school. Although his paperwork says he was born in 2001, we believe he is actually about 2 years older than that. From things W has said, we believe he was "switched" with his younger brother so he would be "more adoptable". We have W in therapy for his issues and just started EMDR therapy with him.

Due to Dad's advanced age we are finding it hard to adopt again since we want to stay in birth order - therefore wanting to adopt age 6 years and younger. Most international countries find Dad to be too old (and we really can't afford international adoption again anyway!). Of course, private domestic adoption will be just as difficult. When we interviewed with our current foster agency, they assured us that we would be able to adopt through them. They also said they would be willing to send our home study to other states' foster agencies - however we find they seem to be stalling on that one. We do live in an area where there are not too many foster children available. We are about 100 miles from a metro area. Most of the calls we have received so far offering placements have been for teens. The few that are for young children are wanting foster parents in the metro areas and we are too far away.

I hope for this blog to tell about our journey as older adoptive parents and foster parents and dealing with the special needs of our children, as well as our life in general. I hope it is interesting and maybe even helpful to someone.