My Hearts Desire

During all the placement stuff with my new sib group, a mom contacted me about her baby. I had her first three children in foster care at one time. She was the family of my husbands first cousin. The first 3 children were adopted by a family member from their fathers side. It had been about 10 years since she gave birth to her youngest in her first kids. Truthfully noone thought she could have any more kids. However, she had a little boy. He was the light of her life for a few months. But addictions are a hard thing to overcome and her old habits kicked back in. I started keeping Austin for days at the time. THEN we found out she was pregnant again. She new she wasn't in any shape to take on another child. Just a few weeks after the baby was born she let me keep them until she could get on her feet. By the time Faith was 3 and a half months old she gave me permenant guardianship. Austin was 17 months old. They are now 6 (almost 7) and 5. It took forever to get the adoption finalized, but we did. Mom stills sees them ocassionally. Austin still has a bond with her even after he was placed at an early age. They are well grounded. Being here at such an early age has given them stability. They can't remember anything else. They are both the youngest and both spoiled rotten


All was going well. The sib group of 5 had settled in. Austin and Faith was doing great. I felt the old tug again. Keith really wasn't willing to adopt again. We watched a special on TV about little girls in China. I begged Keith to please lets take a 2nd morgtage out on the house and adopt from China. He was very firm in this. No we could not afford to do this. IF God wanted me to have a little girl from China then he would send me one. So I talked him into updating our home study to adopt again from the state. Our last sib group didn't come from the GA foster care system. Our homestudy was updated quickly and everything went smooth. Another adoptive mom that worked in the adoption world called me one day and ask if I was still interested in adoption of an Asian child. ( Another thank you to her here! ) YES! Yes , I was. She put me in contact with a mom who had adopted a little girl from CHINA that wasn't a good fit for her family. Little did I know at the time but I truly beleive God put this desire in my heart just about the time my Katelynn was born. He also worked it out beautifully for her to come into my family. I Love the mom who went to China, got her, took care of her and then let me have her. We call the mom her foster mother, because some of the other kids had foster moms and she understands this. When talking to her one day I was explaining that this mom took care of her until I could come and get her, she looked up at me and ask" MOM what took you so long?" Needless to say she IS the desire of my heart. She was 3 when we got her she is now 7. She still has some issues but who doesn't in our house! ME included.

Katelynn had been adopted for 2 years when a worker called me and ask if we might be intersted in a sib group of two . I knew I was. It didn't take much to talk Keith into it one more time. So we updated our home study. We didn't get it done before they found a family for the two, but another group was presented to us and once again I fell in love. It was a sib group of 3. One of the kids has mild mental retardation. At first I was afraid. Could I do it? Could I love her? The other two children had minor problems. Well after we met them in person I truly fell in love. She is the easiest child to parent. Cora had some issues at first but soon overcame them with my parenting style. All three kids are doing great. Hannah is targeted to be in regular classes with no IEP by her middle school years. Isaiah is finally working at grade level. Both passed CRCT and were proud they did. Hannah has some attachemnt issues, not disorder ,just issues. She has made progress. Her therapist is one we have used for years with the other kids and she sees improvement as well. SO all are doing well. Now that you know how we came to be I'll be telling of some of the disabilities, struggles, diagnosis and problems or I should say challanges we face daily.