Search Results for: blog becoming an adoptive parent adjustments I had to make1

Both Spouses Have to Be Committed

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I have written a number of blogs that describe the traits that a couple might want to have in order to adopt a special needs child. It is also necessary that both of you are willing to dedicate your lives to adopting the child. I am specifically focusing on the concept that both partners need to completely “buy in” to the commitment. First of all, I in no way mean to imply that a single person should not adopt. It will take even more dedication and the work will be even harder. There are many single people who have successfully … Continue reading →

Be a Servant

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There is a commercial airing on television in many markets that encourages the viewer to adopt a child. It shows a less than perfect Dad being a father to his son. The point of the ad is that none of us are anywhere near perfect, and if we were nearly perfect, we would not be all of the time. A child that is desperate for a home and family does not need to live in a mansion or have parents that have advanced degrees in adolescent psychology. The child needs the best home and the best parents that are available. … Continue reading →

How Many Children Should You Adopt?

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I recently received a comment to one of my blogs from a family that was considering adopting a group of special needs children. That got me thinking about the process of determining how many children to adopt. This blog will hopefully shed some light to help. We originally adopted four maternal brothers. That number grew to five when we had an unexpected visit from the stork. We have now informed the state that our family is complete. First, I want to discuss the reasons to keep the number small. The most obvious reason is that damaged children will have more … Continue reading →

On Having a Calling

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I will never forget my retirement reception at work. Most businesses have cut back on these events and Shell’s way of doing that was to host a retirement event for two of us at the same time. The other man got up to make his speech. He had worked until he had reached full retirement age and had thirty years of service with the company, just what ninety-five percent of the audience were planning to do. He and his wife own a home located on a cliff hanging over the ocean in Maine. He talked about sitting on the front … Continue reading →

Adoptive Parenting Traits

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I frequently encounter people who tell me that they have seriously thought about adopting a child. It usually comes up in a situation like being in the waiting room in a doctor’s office, they see one of my children, and a conversation starts. It usually ends with the person concluding that they would want to be sure that they could do it and so they never pursue it. I want to try my best to promote adoption and to encourage people to at least think seriously about it. Because of that, I think now and then about things that I … Continue reading →

More African American Support of Transracial Adoption

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In a previous blog, I gave examples of how African American people have shown me that they support our racially mixed family. I have also previously related that Matthew Walter and I spent the night out on his birthday. One of the things that we did was go to a place that could have been named “kid’s heaven”. It had every kind of video game in existence. There were all these virtual reality machines that you could get in and it made you feel like you were on a roller coaster or flying on a crop duster. It also had … Continue reading →