Adopted children ‘are my everything’
“I found out in my young 20s that I wasn’t physically able to have children. I remember at the time being devastated. Then it just became part of me. It was just something I dealt with.
“I’ve always wanted to be a mom. So when my ex and I considered having children, I thought, well, we can foster and be something to somebody who doesn’t have that. I was willing to help give kids a start. If it wasn’t going to be us, then who?
“People talk about the pain of fostering. Like, oh, I could never be a foster parent because I couldn’t handle possibly losing the kids. Well, we need foster parents. For these kids who don’t have a family, I think you need to be willing to suffer a little pain of loss if it comes to that.
“We ended up fostering four kids, and we were lucky enough to adopt two of them. They’re biological brother and sister. We got the oldest at 9 months old. Her baby brother, we got at 3 days old, straight from the hospital. It felt like everything I’d always wanted.
“The youngest is 10 now, and his sister will be 12 this year. My wife and I also have two of her biological grandkids here. They just graduated, one from Sterling High School and the other from home school.
“Being a mom is the joy of my life. If nothing else ever is right in my life, my children are everything to me.
“Being a mom is probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’m an introvert, and they like to be right up on you. But I love it. I can’t imagine at this point not having children.
“If 10 years ago I could have been able to look here and now and see this, I don’t know that I’d believe it. I mean, I’m thrilled to have a full house. It fills me with joy.”
— Amy Waltz-Reasonover
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