“I had my daughter 8 1/2 weeks early. She weighed 2 pounds, 4 ounces. She stayed in the NICU for six weeks. And then my son was born six weeks early. Both he and I ended up in the ICU. I had blood pressure issues. He had lung issues. After those experiences, we decided having additional kids biologically wasn’t a safe option.

“At the same time, we knew there were children all over the world who didn’t have families. Even before we had our own kids, adoption was always on our minds.

“Max was 8 years old when he first came here from an orphanage in Ukraine. My sister and brother-and-law hosted him, thinking maybe they would adopt him. As things progressed, we all came to the realization that my husband and I were supposed to adopt him. It’s hard to explain. It was just this really cool thing that happened, and it became very clear to us.

“We went on to host him for two summers and three winters. The last time he was with us, he returned home in January 2020. Then the pandemic happened. We had just gotten the green light to do our home study, which is a key step in the adoption process. But everything shut down because of COVID. Then our daughter needed major surgery. So we’ve had delays that have caused it to take much longer than we ever expected.

“We’ve always felt like we’re going to push through this, no matter what. But this past week, with Russia invading Ukraine, has been extremely stressful thinking what it could mean for Max, for his country, and for our family. It could mean that he’s never able to come here and be in our family forever. I’ve been torn wanting to consume every bit of information coming out of Ukraine, but not letting that overwhelm me with fear and what if’s.

“Hearing some of the stories from over there, it’s made me appreciate just how resilient the Ukrainian people are. They fought against the Nazis in World War II. When the Soviet Union disbanded, they fought for their independence. And now they continue to fight, which is so encouraging to see.

“We don’t know how long this conflict with continue or what the result of it will be. But we haven’t given up hope that one day, we’ll be reunited with Max. We’re committed to pursuing adopting him until it’s no longer an option. As long as that door remains open, we won’t give up that dream.”

— Alecia Simmons Chapman

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“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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“There are four of us, and we’re all adopted. I never knew my biological parents. When I was 25, I did find out their names. But I never tracked them down. From what I understand, they had a child and could not afford another one. That’s when the man left and I got put up for adoption. I don’t think I was even 1 year old yet. They put something in the newspaper for him to come forward if he wanted to claim me. He had so many days to do it, and he didn’t. So the court waived his parental rights, and I was able to go ahead and get adopted.

“I’ve known I was adopted since starting school. My parents sat us down and told us, ‘It doesn’t mean we love you any less. It just means that we took the time to love you, bring you into our home and give you a family.’ And I was like, OK. I was totally fine with that. I’ve had people ask me about my biological parents. But the thing is, my real parents are the ones who raised me and showed me love. I have a lot of respect for them because of that. They did so much for us. My mom always pushed us to get an education. Every single one of us got a high school diploma, and all of us have had a college education to some extent. She and my dad made sure we had a good home and everything we needed. We had food on the table. We had clothes on our back. We had toys all over the place for birthdays and Christmas. We never lacked for anything.

“I’m 45 now. I have a 17-year-old son, and he’s a great kid. The thing is, I had always wanted a girl. When I was pregnant with him, I had them do the sonogram twice. And they were like, ‘Sorry, that’s not the baby’s finger.’ So I figured, it will come along someday. For a few years now, I’ve been thinking about adopting. I told my mom that if I can adopt a child and bring her into my home, that’s one less kid in the foster system. I could love that child and teach her things. I could do for that child what my adoptive parents did for me and my siblings.”

— Clarissa Fielder (Liberty)

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“When I was in foster care I would think, ‘Why, God? Why did this happen to me? What have I done to deserve this?’ Then I started thinking that maybe I was placed in this situation so I could show how strong I really am. And I think I have proven to people that I am strong. I’ve lived through some challenging times in my life, and I’ve grown from all my experiences.

“One thing I learned was to never give up. There were times when I thought, I’m going to be in foster care until I’m 18. You want to have hope, but you can never get too excited. Because when you get your hopes up too much, that’s when you can get hurt. But you should never completely give up hope, either. I didn’t. 

“For three years, I haven’t really known what I’ve been feeling. All my feelings and emotions have been so mixed up. But when my adoption became official, right then at that moment, I thought I was lucky. I’m one of the lucky ones. I’m the one out of five kids in foster care who gets adopted and ends up in a good home.

“And while I want it, I also feel bad for the other kids who are still waiting or may never get adopted. It sucks that there are so many teenagers and younger children who don’t have what I have now. It doesn’t seem fair. It makes me really sad.”

— Cheyenne Prescott-Espinoza

After nearly three years in foster care in Florida, Cheyenne was officially adopted by Samantha Villegas Espinoza and Eufemia Espinoza on Sept. 27, 2018. Cheyenne, 14, is Eufemia’s biological niece.

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“The adoption process was 18 months long. We knew it would be challenging. But we had no idea how complicated and interrogating it would get.

“We had home visits. We had interviews. We had background checks every three months. They made us do fingerprinting every three months. There was so much paperwork. Because we were in Texas and she was in Florida, there were lots of different rules and regulations that had to be followed. It was definitely a roller coaster of emotions for us and for her. But we kept going.

“And the entire time, we wanted to get excited, but we were told that we couldn’t put anything on Facebook. We couldn’t mention names. We understood, but it was frustrating because we wanted to let the whole world know what was going on.

“On adoption day, when everything became official, it was kind of surreal. The time and effort we put in, the perseverance that we had, it all paid off. And it just shows that for people who are trying to adopt, don’t ever give up. Pursue what you want as your dream, even if it’s hard. Even if it’s something you feel is never going to happen. Because if you want it bad enough and if you stay focused on the goal, you will succeed. We’re proof of that. We never gave up. We kept pushing. And now look at us. We’re a real family.”

— Samantha Villegas Espinoza and Eufemia Espinoza, with Cheyenne Prescott-Espinoza

After more than two years in foster care in Florida, Cheyenne was officially adopted by Samantha and Eufemia on Sept. 27, 2018. Cheyenne, 14, is Eufemia’s biological niece.

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The post Adoption process was emotional roller coaster appeared first on The Baytown Project.

“When my oldest daughter was a teenager, she always thought she would adopt. Over the past three or four years their family has taken in about 12 foster kids. They adopted two little boys and will be adopting another little girl, probably next year. They just feel like this is their ministry.

“Now with our children all grown and out of the house, my husband and I are thinking about hosting a kid from the Boys and Girls Harbor in La Porte. You can take them for a weekend or for holidays to get them out of that orphanage type setting for a while.

“I feel for those kinds of kids. I was adopted by my grandparents when I was 6 months old. I never met my real mother. My father was in and out of my life. I kind of knew he was my dad, but nobody really said anything. I haven’t seen him for about 30 years. It’s kind of sad. I’d like to know what happened to him.

“I found some cousins recently. They’re trying to dig up some pictures of my mother. She had polio and was crippled in one leg. She died in 1975. I’m originally from Indiana, so I’m hoping to go back there next year, look into some things and see some cousins I’ve never met. I’m hoping they find some pictures of my mom. I really want to at least know what she looked like.”

— Kathy Sickle

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“I’ve been a licensed practical nurse (LVN in Texas) for 13 years. Since 2008 I’ve been doing pediatric nursing, mostly private duty working with critically ill kids. While doing that, I fell in love with one of my patients who was 5 years old and in foster care. I decided to become a foster mom and adopted her.

“Right after that, I found out I was pregnant. God blessed me when he said, OK, if you’re going to adopt one, I’m going to give you another special gift. So I went from two to four daughters within a year.

“Having worked with special needs children and then becoming a mom of one, it’s given me a better understanding of the struggles that families go through. It’s a big adjustment.

“Sometimes on off days, I would take my oldest and middle daughters to hospitals or nursing homes to let them meet patients I worked with. I started them early in learning that there are more people out there than just me and you, and that they face challenges and need help. My girls have always been very caring. Now I think their hearts are actually bigger than mine, because they actively seek to help other people.”

— Vanessa Nelson

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