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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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Lawrence and Patti My husband and I are older parents of an adopted 7 1/2 year old son from Russia (adopted at 5 1/2) who was born with cerebral palsy, difficulty walking/walks on tip toes. My husband has some Native American heritage (about 25%) from Midwestern tribes, plus Caucasian, and I and our son are Caucasian, although we expect our family to eventually become quite diverse, including Hispanic, Asian, Native American, etc. My husband has used a wheelchair since childhood (due to cerebral palsy) but is extremely bright and active as a disability advocate in his community. We met because my practice as an attorney focused on helping clients with disabilities achieve their goals. Now that I am a wife and mother, I am obtaining my Special Education Teachers license because it will allow us the freedom of a more family friendly schedule as well as help own children achieve their full educational potential. We also thoroughly enjoy pets and have been involved in service dog training with youth and adults with disabilities since 1992, as well as participating many years in animal assisted therapy. My husband's service dog now is a 12 year old Golden Retriever named Solo. My husband and I are strong Christians and we love and follow the Lord with all our hearts. We come from Non-Denominational Christian and Catholic backgrounds dedicated to outreach to anyone in need to the best of our abilities. We pray that our lives show the Lord's love for us and for others. We just relocated to the four corners area of NW New Mexico believing that the Lord led us here to focus on building our family. As of yet we have not found a church home, yet we can provide numerous references to our faith and our character encompassing many, many years. We are still seeking a church where my husband (severe Cerebral Palsy, uses both electric wheelchair and speech device) and our son, now 7 yrs old, adopted from Russia in 2004 ( also with CP, mild motor--tip toe gait) are fully accepted. We do feel led to tell you we are here as a resource, whether for the adoption of a disabled child (preferably toddler/preschool/elementary) or for a child who has experienced a disrupted adoption (especially international), or to help birthparents, prospective adoptive parents, or others to find answers and resources needed to save lives and insure successful future for special needs children. We believe in the infinite and precious possibilities of each and every child and want to make life-changing differences for those in society considered the least valued, special needs children with physical and/or sensory disabilities. Having life-long experience as disability advocates, my husband and I are fully committed to building a large family of adopted special needs children and/or sibling groups, most with significant physical/sensory disabilities, adopted from preschool to early teens, preferably from orphanages or institutions, ie: those with the least opportunities in their homelands, from the poorest of the poor, or from international disruptions in the US or from waiting children in need in the US...... We truly believe the Lord can make miracles for all of us if we allow Him to do so. We strongly believe that every person has great value as a child of God who has been given unique gifts and talents, even if each may also have differences, disabilities or other special needs. As adoptive parents we role model respect, love, encouragement and empowerment for our children with disabilities, for society to observe and for our children to experience. By helping each other as a family and outreaching as a family to others in need (each contributing their abilities and receiving help from one another) we teach caring service in Jesus name. We are especially anxious to help birthparents who are unable to handle the special needs of their child(ren). We will assist however we can ---if adoption is their choice, then by adoption; if guardianship, then that may be possible; if by helping them find the help, supportive connections, and resources to parent their own special needs child(ren) with joy, then by doing so. Our personal family focus is on finding waiting children with special needs but great potential---including international children being disrupted in the US----esp. older, physically or sensory disabled, sibling groups, etc. from orphanage or disability institutions, for whom we could make a life-changing difference in opportunities and access to medical/rehabilitation/Special and/or Gifted education services. We truly value cultural and language diversity and want to help our children celebrate their uniqueness and their heritages---not force them to give up their emotional past, good memories and relationships, and/or personal history. We are open to maintaining contacts with birthparents, agencies, former adoptive, foster and respite parents to the extent that the relationships are beneficial for the child. Because my husband uses a wheelchair, lengthy air-travel has proven extremely difficult for us and we really need to try to find situations with reasonably shorter travel times/distance or escorting possibilities. While we dearly love to travel ---we would rather invest funds into our children than into the airline industry at this time. Our recently updated resumes are available to birthparents willing to seriously consider us as prospective adoptive parents for their child(ren. Our original homestudy is available now and should be fully updated in a few weeks (April, 2007) as well. We believe we have relocated to a much more diverse, family and disability friendly community. My career change to Special and Gifted Education teaching will also allow me to be much more available to my home and family as well as being less stressful. Lawrence has numerous opportunities here as a Disability Consultant and is receiving invitations to speak at conferences, serve on Boards of Directors, and facilitate self-advocacy group start-ups throughout the Four Corners regions including the Native American reservations in our area. Dear Friend, My husband and I are older (unable to have children ourselves) adoptive parents of one son, who will soon be 8 years old. We adopted him from Russia in 2004. He has cerebral palsy and for that reason he walks on tip toes right now---he is waiting until he is about 9-10 to have corrective surgery (in between growth spurts). He is "too smart for his own good" and is doing great learning English and enjoying school and activities. Unfortunately, had he remained in his home country he would have had little chance of surviving childhood and virtually no opportunity to live independently, attend school or college, participate in a job or career, or achieve his dreams of being married and a Dad someday too. My husband was born with cerebral palsy also. He grew up before Special Education was available to all US children and spent many years in nursing care homes because he has to use a wheelchair to get around and a speech device so others can easily understand him. But like our son, he is close to being a genius at problem-solving and helping people, and that is how he and I met---because after he achieved his own freedom to live in society, he was busy, busy, busy helping as many other folks with disabilities as he could. I became an attorney in 1982 and spent most of the last 25 years helping people, many of whom could not afford help otherwise or were afraid of more rigid or judgmental lawyers. I have helped birthmothers choose life for their children many times before I married my husband in 1996. Because I was so involved in working with people with disabilities, we actually met at a disability conference and began working together, then dating, and finally married. We are all fully committed to building a large family of adopted special needs children and/or sibling groups, most with significant physical/sensory disabilities, adopted mainly from preschool to early teens, preferably from orphanages or institutions, i.e.: those with the least opportunities in their homelands, from the poorest of the poor, or from international disruptions in the US or from concerned birthparents and/or waiting children in need in the US ..... We know what we are getting into and have completely rearranged our lives to make this possible. My husband grew up as the oldest foster child in a special needs foster home --he loved and helped take care of more than forty (40) brothers and sisters with medical problems, disabilities and/or life-threatening birth issues over his early years. Our son grew up in a Russian baby home where many, many infants stayed and were adopted as babies, while he was left behind because of his disabilities. The lady doctor who ran it and all the ladies who helped out gave him special attention and let him help with the babies so much that his only tears once he found us as his new Mom and Dad were over the fact that he couldn't bring all of "his" babies home with us too. My husband and I would have been thrilled (smile!), but Russia doesn't allow that. Every day, our son is asking us when we're going to find his brothers and sisters so we can have a LARGE family!!!!!!! Our focus is on finding waiting children with special needs but great potential---including international children being disrupted in the US----esp. older, physically or sensory disabled, sibling groups, etc. from orphanage or disability institutions, for whom we could make a life-changing difference in opportunities and access to medical/rehabilitation/Special and/or Gifted education services. The type of disabilities with which we have the most experience include cerebral palsy, blindness, low vision, speech disabilities or non-verbal, deafness, hard of hearing, limb differences, paralysis, spina bifida, and other physical or mobility impairments. We also would be more than happy to welcome a child with short stature or dwarfism into our home. We are knowledgeable about orphanage and developmental delays, but hope that our children will eventually be able to learn to live independently with community support systems. We realize that there will be emotional and attachment concerns with the adoption of any older child(ren) and expect to be as flexible, caring and supportive as possible during such transitions. We truly value cultural and language diversity and want to help our children celebrate their uniqueness and their heritages---not force them to give up their emotional past, good memories and relationships, and/or personal history. We are open to maintaining contacts with birthparents, agencies, former adoptive, foster and respite parents to the extent that the relationships are beneficial for the child. Although we are Caucasian (plus 25% Native American/Midwestern tribes in my husband's case) we expect that eventually our family will be highly diverse, including children with Hispanic, Asian, Native American, Roma and other heritage as well. We also have considerable knowledge and experience with Deaf culture and community, as well as American Sign Language. Because my husband uses a wheelchair, lengthy air-travel has proven extremely difficult for us and we really need to try to find situations with reasonably shorter travel times/distance, ground transportation by car or train, or escorting possibilities. While we dearly love to travel ---we would rather invest funds into our children than into the airline industry at this time. We can provide our updated resumes and original homestudy, plus our new Homestudy should be ready by April, 2007. We believe we have relocated to a much more diverse, family and disability friendly community. My career change to Special and Gifted Education teaching will also allow me to be much more available to my home and family as well as being less stressful. Lawrence has numerous opportunities here as a Disability Consultant and is receiving invitations to speak at conferences, serve on Boards of Directors, and facilitate self-advocacy group start-ups throughout the Four Corners region including the Native American reservations in our area. We hope you have learned enough from this letter about us to know whether you might consider us as prospective adoptive family for your child. If so, please contact us. Even if not, please know that you are in our prayers and that we are willing to help you find the resources and help you need for your special needs baby or child(ren) if you need us. Lawrence and Patti |
