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Christian Homes And Special Kids |
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Birth Parent's Line 1-800-266-9837 Contact CHASK 208-267-6246 |
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For Birth Parents
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Rich and Sue Carr, Waterloo, IA
We are a Christian family that has five adopted children at home. We are a multiracial/multicultural family through adoption. Our children range in age from almost two to eight. We also have three grown bio children that are no longer at home. We have extensive experience with special needs and medically fragile children. Some of the things we have experience with include: trach care, oxygen management, CPAP/BIPAP use for sleep apnea, ventilator usage, g-tube feeding, seizure control, etc. Two of our children are medically fragile and doing very well. Three of them have developmental delays due to chromosome abnormalities. We utilize the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN for our children’s specialized medical care. We utilize PT, OT, and speech therapies for our children that need it on a weekly basis. We are very proactive in getting our children’s medical and developmental needs met. We have adopted one child that was placed with us, with an unknown prognosis, and we are open to that as well. In his case he is doing very well under the care of the Mayo Team. We are open to any level of special needs. Sue is a stay at home parent that is in the process of becoming certified as an adoption investigator in the state of Iowa. Once certified, Sue will work from home and go on appts when Rich is home with the children. We feel it is important that one of us is home with the children. Rich had eight years of respiratory care experience, prior to adopting our son with respiratory issues. Our home has been recently modified to be handicap accessible. We are very spiritual people and we pray individually and as a family on a daily basis. We believe in Jesus Christ and that he died to save us from our sins. We do attend church and also practice our faith in our daily lives. We talk with each other about our faith and how it affects us personally and as a family. We believe God has called upon us to adopt our very special children. Reason for Adopting: We have three special needs children and they are the joy in our lives. We want to give a loving Christian home to children who need the extra care, support, acceptance and love that we can provide to them. We believe God has called on us to do this and it is our personal ministry. All of our children are loving and accepting of each other and they are very close. They want to adopt another special needs child as well. We are a larger family, but not too large. We are able to provide the care each of our children need. Our children get a lot of attention and love besides the specialized care they require.
Dear Birth Parents,
Hi, we are Rich and Sue and we live in Iowa. It is hard for us to know the right thing to say to you when you are going through such a stressful and painful time. We know how important it is for you to find a family for your baby that you can trust to always take care of him and surround him with love. We hope this letter will assure you that if you choose us to be his adoptive family we will love, care for, and cherish him each and every day of his life.
Here is a little background on us. We met thirteen years ago while working at a group home for disabled persons. After a few weeks of working together, we started dating. We have been together ever since. We have a strong and stable relationship that is built on mutual love, trust, and respect. We are both spiritual people, and our faith in God is a part of our daily lives and helps us to keep our marriage strong. We also spend a lot of time together and have fun doing a variety of activities.
About Rich: Rich is very patient, caring, loving, and has a wonderful sense of humor. He is always there when anyone needs him. Rich is a very involved father and loves spending time with our children. He especially enjoys taking them for walks to the park, where they spend hours playing. Rich loves reading (science fiction, mysteries), exercising, hiking, camping, fishing, and biking. Rich feels it is important to keep himself physically fit and healthy. Rich has two Bachelor Degrees, Child Development and Physical Education/Coaching. He worked in coaching and human services for many years. Rich went back to school and worked as a respiratory therapist for over eight years. Rich became a stay at home Dad a few years ago when our son, Noah, developed respiratory issues related to his Down Syndrome. Now that Noah's health has improved greatly Rich has returned to work.
About Sue: Sue is very loving, caring, intelligent, nurturing and has a good sense of humor. She enjoys life to the fullest and shares her enthusiasm with everyone. Sue's greatest love is our family and she spends much time talking and laughing with our children. Sue enjoys learning new things, working on the computer, exercising, reading, dancing, going shopping, playing tennis, and working on home improvement projects. Sue has a Bachelors Degree in Social Work and a Masters Degree in Youth and Human Services Administration. Sue has worked in the Human Services field providing services to children and families for many years. Last year, Sue left her job in Oklahoma as a Child Placement Supervisor at a private adoption agency in order to move back to our home state of Iowa. We made the move in order to be closer to the Mayo Clinic where Noah could get more specialized medical care. Sue is currently staying home with the children. She is in the process of becoming a Certified Adoption Investigator in Iowa and plans to work from home. We both have flexible schedules so one of us can be home with the children, which is very important to us.
Rich grew up with two sisters and six brothers. Rich's family enjoys getting together for holidays, and they also go on a family vacation every year. Sue grew up with two biological sisters, two adopted brothers (one from Burma, and one with mental retardation), and many foster brothers and sisters. Sue's family lived a very culturally integrated lifestyle, where it was important to learn about and embrace other cultures. We both want our children to have the opportunity to grow up in a home where differences are celebrated and everyone is accepted.
About our children: We have five adopted children at home. They are the joy in our lives, and we can not imagine our lives without them. We are a multiracial/multicultural family through adoption and we celebrate and value each others heritage. Sue also has three grown children that are out on there own, and that are very involved with the younger children.
Gabrielle (Gabi) loves to be funny, but she also has a serious side. She is very social and has many friends. Gabi is eight and is in third grade. She is super intelligent. Her teachers just love her. She is a leader in her classroom and her teachers comment on her good self-esteem. This last school year, Gabi was chosen from all of the elementary students to be a spokesperson when her school won the Iowa School of Character Award. She spoke at the assembly when the award was presented to the school. She was also interviewed for our local newspaper and television news program. She talked about respect and responsibility. We are so very proud of her. Gabi loves to sing and has a beautiful voice. Gabi also loves to help out in the kitchen, and she loves to cook. Gabi enjoys spending time with her sisters and brothers. She is especially close to Noah.
Danielle (Dani) is a very active six year old and is always on the go. She can be very funny, but gets irritable when she is tired. Dani loves playing with dolls, playing outside on our swing set, riding her bike, dancing, and singing. Dani has asthma and also some speech difficulties. Dani is in first grade. She did have developmental delays when she was younger. Now she attends a regular class and is no longer considered delayed. This was due to early intervention therapy. We feel that early intervention for children can make a tremendous difference. Dani enjoys spending time with her sisters and brothers, especially Tyrek and Noah.
Tyrek is almost five years old. He joined our family after spending the first three years of his life in foster care. Tyrek loves everybody and likes to give everyone hugs and kisses. Tyrek attends a special needs preschool a few hours a day in order to work on developmental delays related to Down Syndrome and behaviors. He has speech therapy as well. Tyrek is in fairly good health. He is seen by a cardiologist once a year due to a heart condition that was surgically corrected when he was younger. Tyrek enjoys playing with his siblings.
Noah is a very happy and content two-and-a-half year old. He is always smiling. He has a great personality. He is such a joy and everyone in the family is drawn to him. Noah has Down Syndrome and developmental delays. Noah has respiratory issues and has a trach to help him breathe. He also uses a BIPAP machine and oxygen while he sleeps due to sleep apnea. His specialists at the Mayo Clinic are now seeing improvement in Noah's medical condition and will be working towards removing his trach in the next six months. Noah feeds through a G-Tube, but he has recently started some tastes of pudding thickness baby foods. We have an open adoption with Noah's birth family, including his grandparents. We enjoy the time we spend with Noah's birth family.
Austin is a happy 22 month old boy who has overcome much. Austin has a rare chromosome 5 disorder. He had many health issues and developmental delays when he joined our family last year. These have both improved greatly in the time he has been with us. Austin uses a CPAP machine and oxygen while he is sleeping for sleep apnea. He is fed through a G-J tube and has recently started tastes of pudding thickness baby foods just like Noah. Austin is followed by specialists at the Mayo Clinic. Austin loves spending time with his sisters and brothers. He is a happy boy and laughs a lot.
Cory, the oldest of our grown children, is twenty-nine years old and is married to Becky. They have two daughters, Kylee age four and Karly age two. Cory is a Maintenance Supervisor at a meat packing plant and Becky is a Dental Assistant. Kylee and Karly love spending time with our children and they all get along well. We get together with Cory and his family often.
Mitch is twenty-seven years old and was recently discharged from the US Air Force after six years. He was a Staff Sergeant, and he met his wife Edlira while he was stationed in Italy. We all missed him very much while he was in the service and are glad he is home. We see each other and talk on the phone often.
Melissa is twenty-five years old. She and Joe have two children, Kayla age eight and Keaton age three. Melissa and Joe both work at the same food processing plant as our Son, Cory. Kayla and Keaton love to play with our children, so we get together with them often. Sue and Melissa are very close.
As we mentioned earlier, we moved back to our home in Iowa a year ago. We had lived in Iowa most of our lives and had moved to Oklahoma for Sue's job at the adoption agency. Although Sue loved her job, it was more important for our son to get the best medical care available. We were fortunate that we had kept our home in Iowa, so the move back was less difficult. It was also very nice to be back home near our families.
Our home is very spacious and has four bedrooms and two baths. We are finishing a fifth bedroom currently. We have a very large back yard with lots of play equipment for the children. We also have a large deck which our young children can ride their riding toys on. Our neighborhood is very nice and our neighbors are friendly. Our community is very diverse with persons of all racial and cultural backgrounds. There are many opportunities for our children in this community. The schools are also very good. Our daughters have had the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of activities.
As parents we have many values we hope we will pass on to all of our children. The first is the importance of family. We want our children to value their birth families as well as our family. We want them to value their life and the lives of others. We want them to have high self-esteem, and to develop a positive self-identity. We want them to accept people of all races and cultures. We want them to have a spiritual life and have God be a part of their daily lives. We want them to value education and to do the best they are able to do. We want them to have fun and enjoy their lives. We want them to know that they are loved by us and their birth families. We want them to be at peace with being adopted.
If you choose our family to adopt your baby we would like to have an ongoing relationship with you, if you are comfortable with that. We are open to sharing letters, pictures, phone calls, emails, and having visits would be wonderful. We also understand if this is not what you want, and will honor your decision regarding openness. We have had very limited contact with our daughter's birth families as this was their choice. We respect their decision, but it has been difficult at times for Gabi and Dani, not knowing much about their birth families. We have an open relationship with Noah's birth family and we are very grateful to have them in our lives.
We hope our letter and pictures will help you have some idea of what our family is like. We want you to know we admire you for deciding to make an adoption plan for your child as we understand how much strength and love it takes to make that choice for your child. We want to thank you for considering us as an adoptive family for your child. It is truly an honor.
Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your precious baby.
Rich & Sue |
