![\"Get](\"http://i160.photobucket.com/albums/t169/jenettapenner/punchtab450.gif\")
| Tweet | Pin It |
Maybe you know and maybe you don’t but my husband and I adopted 2 little girls from foster care. When they came they were just 3 and 4 years old- and it was pretty scary (for us and them!!). I can’t say it has always been easy- it has been a hard road. But I think any kind of parenting is hard- not matter if your children are bio or adopted, we all have our road to travel.
I’m sure that some of you have considered adoption before and many of you may have been scared that it was either too difficult or too expensive- and I suppose that it could be both. Many types of adoption are very expensive (up to $40,000).
After around 13-14 years of marriage my husband and I began to feel called to adopt. I am one of those weirdo women who has no desire to have a baby, but my husband wanted to have a family- so we started to think about adoption. We have friends who did international adoption and the road was very long and hard. It was definitely worth if for them but we found it was not where we were begin called. We really felt we wanted to help someone in our own community- and this meant foster adoption.
We were very pleased to know that foster adoption (at least in California) meant FREE!!! And this included free services like respite, therapy, and medical care until they are 18. I know not all states are the same- but I am pretty sure that it is super affordable in every state or free.
So we jumped. It was a long jump and it was around two years from when we started the process until the girls came. But we are amazed how well they did with our match- I know that these are our daughters. God just happened to have them grow out of someone else’s tummy instead of mine. I am always teasing that I am not sure how these girls got my DNA 
People even say they look like my husband and I.
We have decided that 2011 is the year to share our story. We want to encourage others to adopt. So you are going to start seeing a banner on the site of FFD for The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. We will be donating a portion of the proceeds from FFD to them. I hope you will check them out and find out more about foster adoption.
If you are thinking about adoption I highly recommend it. Don’t worry if you think “I don’t know if I could love them as much” YOU WILL. Don’t worry about the cost- It can be affordable, even free. Go for it!!
Images by Kathy Ziegler and Beki Dawn
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
That is a beautiful story
I have adopted to, ours was relative adoption. I cannot stress enough how many beautiful children there are out there and need homes. I would not trade our child for anything. She is a true gift of God. It doesn’t matter how
you get to become a parent but what you do as a parent.
I, too was a foster parent. I adopted my daughter from foster care when she was three. Yes, it was free!! I didn’t pay for anything. She gets free medical and dental and vision. It is a great experience for me, she’s now 11.
Michelle- thanks for sharing!!
I was adopted at birth – but from a grown up adopted kid – thanks.
We are foster-to-adopt parents. We adopted our daughter 10.5 years ago as an infant and now waiting to adopt our current foster kids. Folks need to know that foster kids are just kids with troubled parents. Once they know you know that, that settle in and are completely normal (OK, there are some troubled kids out there too!).
We are hoping that others see through us that adoption is a great way to build a family!
I love this so much! John and I have often thought about adopting, but most everyone around us are doing international adoptions — but I’ve always struggled with the costs. I don’t know if you know about Show Hope, but they are a great organization that provides grants to those seeking to adopt — but it would be a small portion of the costs.
The big thing I’m not sure about is that once the adoptions become finalized in Kansas, I don’t know if we have the same access to services like health care, etc. I’ll definitely be looking into it!
Thanks for the encouragement. It came at just the right time, and we’ll definitely have to explore more options!
Thanks for the sweet comment, I’m glad it encouraged you!!
Jen
Thank you for this article! I think people have the misconception that adoptions must cost thousands and thousands of dollars and so they don’t even consider the option. I myself was adopted and our family has considered adoption in the future as well!
Just wanted to say your article is an inspiration. We are going to the classes now to adopt, only 3 more weeks.
My husband and I decided to add to our family, we already have 3 children 20, 17 and 10. We are hoping to adopt a sibling group between the ages of 4-11.
that’s great!
jen
{ 3 trackbacks }