Older child or waiting child adoption

Hi, We are Russ & Brenda. We have a 10 year old daughter, and have wanted another child for a long time. We almost adopted an infant several years ago, however, that didn't work out. After some soul-searching, we have decided that adopting an older child could also be a good way to complete our family. We would like to adopt a child younger than our daughter, and have a current home study approved to adopt a child from 0-7 years old. We are also applying to our state's foster-to-adopt program, and have been learning about how to parent an older child who may have had trauma or other special needs. We are a loving family in the upper Midwest and live in a fantastic neighborhood with great schools. We look forward to answering any questions you might have about our family!

Wanting to Adopt

Dear Birth Mother,

We would like to first say Thank-You for taking time out to read about our story and brave enough to consider an Adoption plan for your child. We can only imagine the decisions that you face at this time. We commend you in your strength and courage in making plans to make sure your child has the best possible life. We Thank-You in advance for taking time out to read our letter as you make plans to find suitable parents for your child-to-be.

We want to introduce ourselves to you, hello my name is Terri and my husband’s name is Shane and we have been married for 17 years now. We are both in our 40's and we attend church every Sunday. We have a very stable home, a home my husband built himself from scratch he has a really good job. (doing construction work.) With that I mean I can be a stay- at-home mom and tend to the children's needs. We live in the country on five acres. Our house has four-bedrooms and has 2 ½ baths, it is a 1 ½ story ranch style house, with a basement completed for entertainments. We have a big back yard so that the kids can play in. We just adopted a stray baby kitten and some baby pups. We have chickens so that someday we can start a farm. My husband and I love the outdoors. We enjoy traveling, going to the museums, plays, movies, concerts, horseback riding. We also like going camping, fishing, canoeing, bike riding, playing tennis. We just took our adopted son to Disney world in the year 2015. Our son loves to hang out with Daddy and build things and play on his bunk bed. His bed is L shaped and has a loft underneath so that when the adopted sibling comes they can watch movies together. He is looking forward for their arrival here and we pray for them to come every day. Our son loves to play with his Legos, has a big imagination on how to care for his sibling and what they will be doing together. I want to explain why we can’t have kids.
Around our third Anniversary of marriage we lost our first child through a miscarriage. We were devastated but we didn't lose hope that God will provide a child to us. Our first miscarriage was in the year 2003. Then in the year 2006 we thought we would try doing invitro and they implanted twins in me but sadly after two weeks of being pregnant we lost them both. So, shortly after that we knew that God's plan for us was to adopt, we were placed on the waiting list from the year 2006- 2010. I will never forget that beautiful moment of this call on April fool’s day of the year 2010 saying you need to pick up your baby boy! We were crying and laughing with so much joy, a joy I never experienced in my life!
So, we decided to go through an adoption plan in the year 2010 and successfully we were able to adopt a boy when we got him he was only 4 days old, he is now 7 years old and he has been saying Momma when can we adopt another one? I am lonely and need someone to play with? This was his reply. He has been wanting a sibling to play with since he was two years old. Adoption is a big part of our lives and we value the gift that our God provides. This is for that birth mother whom chooses us to adopt her child. If you choose for us to love and nurture your child, they will be truly loved and will cared for. We will provide a fund for their future college and will be filled with lots of love. We have a room full baby girl clothes. I homeschool our son through a Christian setting. We are very excited to start adding to our family again through adoption.
My plan is to draw awareness to our children and show them how blessed they truly are and to show them that even God was adopted and allow them to see how special adoption is. If you choose us, I will show you pictures of our home and show you pictures of all the clothes we have ready for that bundle of joy to be part of our lives. You can e-mail me at Adopting4causes@yahoo.com and we look forward to your reply soon.

Life after over 20 Years of Military Service

I am an Army Officer, who is currently assigned at Fort Knox, Kentucky. After over 20 years of service, I am most interested in focusing on my family life, as a single parent. I recently completed my PhD in Human Services, which is where my interest lies, in particularly working with youth.