David and I thought about adoption for a long time before we decided that it was for us. We searched for adoption agencies and had about given up hope that we would ever be able to afford to adopt a child. Then we found out about Minnesota Waiting Children. These are kids that are in sibling groups, are older, or have special needs.
We started the process in January of 2002. In December of 2001, we got a call from Carmen Haugen (who is our adoption worker with North homes). Carmen was calling to tell me about these two little girls that were going to be available for adoption. They were very young, native, and there was no termination of the parental rights yet. All in all, it was a very high risk placement. She asked if we would be interested and I instantly said yes. Sight unseen and future unknown, David and I started then and there falling in love with our daughters.
We met the girls a few weeks later, when we drove to Detroit Lakes to the foster home that they were in at the time. We got to spend one hour with them. I just recall that the time went by so quickly. We took a whole roll of film, and we knew that there was no going back, we would do whatever it took to have these girls as our children. The next month was the longest of my life. We had two more visits in the next month, and each time we left them to come back home, it broke my heart to leave them there. I would cry the whole way home and for days after, I still cry when I think of it.
We had placement on January 12, 2003. Amanda was 3 years and 6 months, Dana was 2 years and 3 months. They came to us with two boxes of stuff, I know that sounds like a lot, but it's definately not. We were lucky that our friends and family gave us so much! My friends threw me an adoption shower and two years later people still give the girls hand me downs that we all love and appreciate! Most families have placement for three months and then they finalize. Because we did not have a TPR, we had a long wait and we finalized on July 17, 2003. Eighteen months and 5 days after placement, we are finally a family.
After all of that, we must be crazy, we just told Carmen that we want to adopt a BOY! |
