The Teurman Family Profile
We would like to adopt a child who is less than 10 years old. We are open to boys or girls. We feel we can accommodate a sibling group of up to 3 kids. We would like a sibling group of boys and at least one girl. Jeremyah said he wants a little sister. Almost any ethnic background will blend in with our family. We are open to children with many special needs. We do not mind having contact with the child\'s biological parents (by email or by phone or by mail ) provided the parent was/is not abusive to the child. We do not mind having continuing contact with the child\'s former foster parents, by email or by phone or by mail. In general, We do not have any specific attributes. Although we are not sure if we are ready for children with significant medical needs at this time.Introduction
Our names are Amanda and Bryan Teurman.
I am currently 30 years old of African American decent and was born in Sandusky, Ohio.
My husband is currently 29 years old of Hispanic decent and was born in Compton, California. We have one child his name is Jeremyah and he is 8 years old. He participates in almost every sport possible but he is currently in wrestling. He also plays basketball, baseball, football, soccer, boxing and bowling. He bowls on a league here in town. My hobbies include writing poetry, attending our sons sporting events, reading, traveling/vacationing, spending time with my family, and motorcycle riding. My husband enjoys playing music, motorcycle riding, writing music, attending our sons sporting events, traveling/vacationing, I am a Pharmacy Technician at the Kmart here in town. I have my Bachelors in Health Service Administration and also my STNA. My Husband is a stay-at-home parent and is currently going to school for his Bachelors in Business Administration and Bachelors in Communication. He should be done this summer. We want to open up our own pharmacy and small health clinic to benefit underprivileged kids and families. We have been together for approx 5 years and finally got married August of 2013.
As everyone's beliefs are different, we are christian family and we just try and do what is right. We like Michigan Wolverines, I personally like LA Lakers...my husband doesn't. As far as TV shows, we all like The Walking Dead and I have just begun watching the series The Fosters (I really like it). We like all kinds of movies mostly action or comedy tho and we listen to every kind of music we try and stay very diverse. I have become especially fond of Spanish music.
When we gather, we usually gather in living room and most of our time at home is spent enjoying each others company. We like to play board games and watch movies. Sometimes we quiz our son on math or other subjects. We all like to go motorcycle riding and we spend a lot of time at sporting events and practices.
We love to take time to travel together as a family even if it it is just to a museum to learn something new.
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Home and Community
We live in the State of Ohio.
Our home is a single family home.
We live in a City/Urban neighborhood in Chillicothe.
We know our neighbors. We love going to the park to play or maybe feed the ducks, museums, library, vacations, swimming, ice skating/regular skating,
Some things in our town to do is going to the park or the school yard. There is also a skating rink but it is not within walking distance
A lot of the kids in our neighborhood are in school sports ranging from baseball to football and in our sons case wrestling.
The schools in our area are very good. The elementary our son goes to was recently chosen as the School of Promise. They received A's on their state grading card.
We attend Open Door church. We usually don't make it every Sunday because Jeremyah's wrestling meets are typically on that day.
Parenting Experience
My son is ADHD and we have adjusted our teaching/ parenting styles to help him achieve his highest potential. He is currently 8 years old in 3rd grade reading and doing school work on a 4th/5th grade level. Although he has some difficulty with behavior at school he is making great strides in improving himself. I have also had experience with children with asthma because my son and my self have it. Also I used to have seizures when I was young and so does my mother so I have some experience in that as well. I have a lot of medical background from my pharmacy experience and my degree.
My husbands experiences are more limited to mine as he has no biological children. However, all of the same above experiences with our son pertaining to his ADHD and asthma my husband has experience with.
Some of my strengths are being able to remove my self from certain situations to get a different perspective and then adjust the way I need to address the situation to get the best result for all involved.
Bryan is a great teacher. Academics, cars, life lessons, whatever it may be hes the man for the job. He is able to break situations down so that you can understand them better.
We believe that we can handle adoption because of all the support we have from our families and from each other. We know that it will not always be easy, its not always easy with our child, but in the long run it will definitely be worth it.
We are about to start some new training classes to help us address situations that may arise. We also have a very nice case worker that is always there to help us with any questions that we may have and also our trainer who we did our pre-service classes with.
Apart from some minor adjustments to having a new child in the house, I think most of the things will stay the same. We will definitely have a lot more noise with all the kids playing :) but that is actually something we look forward to.
We have currently only taken the pre-service classes to get licensed so far. We are planning on taking the 1st aid/CPR classes soon and possibly a few others. We are just waiting for then to be offered.
Our training helped us to refine the way we manage our own son. We took a lot of what we learned from our class about kids with ADHD and applied it at home. We have seen a big difference in our sons behavior and have been able to give him more privileges because of it.
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Support
Our foster agency is very good at providing follow up training and if not able to provide it, they are able to send us to where we would need to go to get help.
The children will attend the daycare my son has gone to since he was 6 weeks old. My grandmother and close friend also volunteer to help out
Our son is already looking forward to having siblings. He knows that it will be an adjustment and he tells us how he will show the new kids where stuff is at and help them to be happy here :). I think that Jeremyah will play a big part in helping the children to adjust more easily in our family.
Our Family is our primary source of support, along with our case worker and trainers.
We will receive other support from other foster/adoptive parents in our community and any other resources available
Motivation to Adopt
Adopting/Fostering has always been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. I have always felt that I could make a difference in a child's. Even if it was only for a short time such as fostering. For my husband, I think it kind of grew on him. We talked about it and after all of our training felt like this is something that we can give back. We have so much love to give we want to be able to share it with kids that might be less fortunate.
We will do our best to make it an easy transition for the child/children we adopt, giving them all the time and resources they need to help them. We want to be able to give our child all the love and nurturing that they deserve and help them to grow into healthy adults. We are not perfect parents, no one is, but we feel like we could be the prefect family for a child in need.
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