Success Stories

THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU to the Matching Assistance Program.

Norberto and I have been foster parents since 2007 and prior to that we were tribal placement parents for a child from the Oneida Reservation.  We have always known we have wanted a large family and began working on our dream shortly after we were married.

We tried for a little over 1 year when we started infertility testing.   Years of infertility treatment and no babies in site.  We decided to start the process to become foster parents when we were told that Jaymie had stage 1 uterine cancer requiring a radical hysterectomy.  There went our dreams to ever have our family.  Through our journey we were graced with a beautiful foster baby that just over 1 year later we were able to add him to our forever family through adoption.

We continued to foster and 24 placements later, we still were not able to add to our forever family and actually went through a seemingly never ending nightmare with the foster care system.  Our journey took us to our adoption agency that then told us about the interstate adoption program.  It was on February 18, 2011 that we joined the Matching Assistance Program. 

Through the Matching Assistance Program we got leads on well over 250 children that we inquired on.  My MAP specialist was sending me searches weekly, but I was out daily searching and inquiring.  We ended up inquiring on 285 children and only heard back on a hand full of those.

Some we were matched to and subsequently decided against, some we were not chosen as the best family.  Unfortunately,  there are many ups and downs with the adoption journey and you get out only a portion of what you pour in.  Working with our adoption specialist and Jennifer and Christy, we stumbled on a sibling group of 4 from Texas.  We saw them and inquired on 3/4/11 and found out we were the matching family on 4/18/11. 

We waited for what seemed like forever for their files, but it wasn’t even 1 month later.  We soon found ourselves reviewing the files, presentation staffing and accepting the children as a possible placement.  We then had to wait for the ICPC to be completed which would allow Florida to take over the month to month case evaluation.  We found out that the ICPC was approved on July the 8th we were allowed to go visit the kids.  We flew out on July 13th and we were able to spend 7 full glorious days with our kiddos, and subsequently found out we were allowed to take them back with us on the plane.  There have been extremely minor speed bumps, but all is going very well with our family which is now 5 kids and 2 adults.

It all seemed to take forever when we were going through it all, but when I put it in prospective, from seeing and inquiring on the children to official placement of them, it was 4 months and 19 days, a whirl wind in prospective.  As much help as the Match assistance program is, it is dependent on the adoptive families willingness to put in effort.

Norberto and Jaymie
August 2011

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Our journey toward a very lively household began, as do all adoption journeys, with the home study. Our social worker from Catholic Charities was raised on a ranch. We live on a small farm and found that she understood our ways and goals. Friendship, trust and understanding flowed both ways.

Paperwork seemed to take forever, but once the home study was completed we started putting in our home study for children. We were considered, but not chosen for several sibling groups. Discouragement crept into my thinking, but not so much into my husband's thinking. We both have a very strong faith in God and knew that He was the guiding force in the process. That faith and knowledge did not keep us from discouragement and frustration, but it did keep us moving forward.

Our social worker understood both our faith and our discouragement. From the beginning, she had our permission to send our home study if she saw a child or children that we might be a good family for. She ended up sending in our home study for two little boys ages 3 and 23 months. Our social worker did not tell us she had sent the home study in until she found out we were one of two families being considered for the boys.

What a Friday morning that was! (July 16, 2010) I had worked from midnight until 8am and had just gotten home; my husband was at work when our social worker called to tell us the news. She told us the oldest boy had a kidney disease and then emailed me two pictures of the boys. (Kidney disease is actually a special need we are comfortable with as my husband had been on dialysis for 10½ years and is a living donor kidney transplant recipient.)

The weekend was spent wondering how the meeting on Monday would go and if we would be chosen. Our social worker told us that she probably would not hear until Tuesday because the adoption worker had a placement after the meeting. We heard nothing on Tuesday, but called our social worker and told her we would stop by the office on Wednesday when we were in town. She greeted us at the door with "Hi Mom and Dad" and let us know we were chosen!

After much frustration with two states and their respective paperwork, we brought the boys home on January 29, 2011. Since then, we have been through surgery with the oldest to place a peritoneal dialysis catheter, started him on peritoneal dialysis (which we do at home every night) and enjoyed every minute of getting to know our perfect boys!

Our advice is to give your social worker permission to put your home study in when they see a child or sibling group. Trust and have faith that the right child or children will be in your lives at the time they are destined to be. Don't be afraid of what you read in the preliminary social services reports about your child. Ask the medical professionals that treat the child for information and guidance.

Kristina and John
April 2011

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One morning in November of 2006 we opened the Register Guard and noticed a picture of a little boy under the heading of Child of the Month for the Heart Gallery of Lane County. A cute little boy named ""Austin" who was looking for a Forever Family. Thus began our journey down the road to adoption. We already had 4 kids of our own from the ages of 9 to19, but only two were still living at home and after a family discussion, with our two boys, we decided to try and adopt a little boy in the 8 year old range.

January of 2007 we began the process. We came to find out we had to take 8 parenting classes, get a background check and then a have a home study done. What we didn't know was that it would take nearly five months to get all of those things accomplished. Unfortunately, while we were going through this process, Austin the boy we saw in the register guard, had already had his committee set and we weren't able to be considered.

Austin had his forever family so we started reviewing bulletins looking for another little boy who we could open our home to. Our DHS worker sent new bulletins whenever they came out and she thought they might fit into our home. We found another little boy who we were ready to open our home to that we were selected again for committee if it came to that. Unfortunately for us but great for him, his grandparents found him in the Heart Gallery and were able to be his adoptive resource. A few months later we again found a child we thought would fit well into our home. Our home study was sent and we were selected for committee, but for whatever reason we weren't selected. This was the point when we really had to ask ourselves if riding this roller coaster of emotion was worth staying on. After talking with Christy Obie-Barrett over and over again and constantly talking with our worker, we decided it was definately worth it.

March 11th of 2008 we were selected at committee for Michael. Later that after noon we were notified we had been selected, but the joy was short lived because we were also told the decision of the committee was going to be reviewed. We then spent the next two months waiting for DHS to decide if we were going to be Michael's adoptive resource. During this time we asked ourselves many times if this was worth it and there were many occasions we were going to tell DHS to withdraw our name and give up.

We didn't give up and Michael has been with us for thirty days now and we're happy he's joined our family. Everyone is adjusting to having a 6 year old in the house again. The boys are behaving like brothers playing together one minute and arguing the next, so hopefully that's a good sign.

It's been 19 months since this journey began and now that Michaels in our home we're glad we didn't give up because he deserved to have a forever family and he needed someone to not give up on him. We are very happy to have Michael as our son and hope that someday he comes to love us as we do him.

This is really just the beginning of our journey and now the hard part begins.

Jenny and Dave H.

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We found a 10-year-old boy right here in Texas! Can you believe it? I didn't want to say anything until things looked really promising, but we looked around in Texas and found Danny. Our agency from Austin contacted us around the end of November and said they wanted to talk to us about him. We met with them in January and about a week later, we had been selected as Danny's family for adoption out of three couples that were interviewed! 

We were all a little blown away but the response has been awesome and the support system has been phenomenal. Danny has been at a treatment facility right here in Austin (I have been driving right by there for two years on the way to work every day) but he is under the care of the County.

We had a great first 2 hour pass here at the house. We stopped at McDonald's and got hamburgers and fries and came back to the house and ate them at the bar. Ashley, our new in-home therapist, met us here and hung out with us. She is very nice and we all like her. She helped us set up the badminton net (not an easy job while fighting off those pesky gnats).

We played badminton, horse shoes and passed the football. He loved his new bedroom and invited the dogs to jump up on his bed with him and play. He also got a new basket ball and we have a new hoop on the way. Hopefully it will get here by Saturday so we can shoot some hoops on Sunday. He is quite good and loves to "slam dunk" the ball.

On the way back to the treatment home we told him that we loved him no matter what and he smiled. He calls us every night now around 7:30 and tonight he sounded a little down, so we asked him what was wrong and he said he missed us. What a sweet and loving little boy. He will hopefully get to come home by the first of August.

He is a wonderful child and is attaching to both of us! All three of us are happy and blessed. I really wanted to thank you so much for taking up all that time with me and encouraging me and trying to help me find my son. You will never know how much you helped me through this. I truly mean that from the bottom of my heart too. If it hadn't been for you, I think I would have gone stir crazy. You gave us hope and the courage we needed to not give up and for that I will NEVER forget you.

I guess you can tell we are pretty excited. Danny's whole world has changed and so has ours. We already love him so much and are spoiling him completely rotten :-)

Thanks again Christy and keep up your great work because we see now firsthand what a difference it makes in a child's life to find a home and feel part of a forever family.

Thanks to you all for your support and love,

Tom, Todd and Danny
July 2011