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The Dietz Family Profile

We did not specify one particular age of the child we would like to adopt. As we would be interested in a child that is between the ages of 4 to 9 and possibly 10, depending on the birthdate, as we have been advised by our daughter's caseworker to try to maintain that she is the eldest child in our home. We are not sure whether we want to adopt a boy or a girl. If it were a little boy, we would prefer that he be younger so that we would not have any issues. A little girl would be fine at any of the ages listed above, as we would like the children to grow together and to become siblings as well as best friends, no matter the age. Please Note: Don and I have discussed this, and we are really trying to adopt 1 child, but if a perfect situation came about we may consider 2. Regarding the racial preferences - our family would be fine with a bi-racial child of any races, Hispanic, or Caucasian. We do live in a rural area about 1 hours from State College and a little less than 2 hours from Pittsburgh. We want the child to feel comfortable with us, our daughter is of German/Italian background, and Donny (my husband) is the same; I am German/Irish. Our area is primarily Caucasian, as it is an old Italian area. If a child was placed with us, race would not be an issue as we would love that child for who they are on the inside. We are open to children with special needs, but this would depend on the special need. This would need to be disclosed to us, as our daughter was adopted and we are making a decision that will obviously be a family decision where we are trying to do what is best for our little girl who came from an adoptive situation. We would not want to adopt a child that has been sexually abused or that publically/privately acts out in sexual manners, as we do not want to bring those issues into our home. Obviously, we are realistic, but we are just trying to do what is best for our daughter. In general, I think that we are pretty open to many different situations, but we are trying to be realistic, yet open as every child is different. If we had 3 children of your own, each one would have different issues, personalities, their own personal quirks, etc... We could discuss these topics in more detail, if there is a child that you feel based on our home study would be a good fit for that particular child as well as for us. We will work and do whatever is necessary for this child to prosper, whether it means having some type of a relationship with his/her birth family, or just by sending pictures and letters, if this child would need therapy to deal with their particular situation we will do what we can to assist in the process. It this child has a unique difference we would do what we could to assist them to be happy with his/herself and to bloom. We understand that this has a history and it is our responsibility to work with this child in whatever capacity necessary to help them to know that our family would be forever and always be there for them.

Introduction

Our names are Vicki and Donald Dietz. We met at a Christmas Party in 1996. We dated for a year and a half and we got married in June of 1998. This was a first marriage for both of us, and neither one of us had any children. I was born in DuBois, Pennsylvania. I am an only child. My husband was born in Ridgway, Pennsylvania. Don has 2 brothers. We have one child named Alyssa Jo and we lost a baby to a tubal pregnancy prior to adopting Alyssa Jo. Alyssa Jo is 10 years old, and is a beautiful dark haired, blue-eyed little girl who is a wonderful blessing to our lives as well as to the entire family. We are a very young at heart family and never consider our ages to be a disability, but an advantage. We live every moment to the fullest, enjoy being parents, and we have lots of fun in our lives. My husband works full-time for Metco Industries as a Engineering Manager. Don has worked at his present job for about 7 years. Don went to College at Penn State and graduated with a degree in Engineering. I work full-time for Riverview Intermediate Unit 6 as a Confidential Secretary and have a flexible work schedule. I have worked there for 27 and 1/2 years and children are our concern. I went to Clarion University of PA and graduated with a degree in Communications; and also have an Associate Degree as a Legal Secretary from DuBois Business College. Obviously, we expect our daughter to do well in school and we work with her, but we only expect of her what she is capable of. If our child had learning disabilities, we would work with that child to help him/her be the best they could be. When the school work is done, we enjoy our time together as a family. Our family is a very busy family. We get up and get Alyssa off to school and off to work we go. Everyone in our home has chores and responsibilities and we try to work together to pick up the slack for each other when necessary. Priority is homework and we sit with Alyssa while she does it. We really do enjoy being parents. If she help in a subject we help her. We work year round, but Don and I are off on all the school holidays as we work our days to be with Alyssa. I work a 4 day week in the Summer for 10 weeks and I am off a lot of time using my vacation days even during that 4 day work week with Alyssa. We try to maximize our time with our family using our vacation and personal days during the year and in the summer. We are a musical family. We all sing, play instruments and enjoy this as a family. We have a swimming pool, and only live 3 blocks from our towns park, we have a wonderful swing set in our backyard that adults can swing on and we have had many a good times on that swing set with our daughter. We live near the park where many baseball fields are located, the community pool, and our school district's football field. Alyssa has tried many activities ranging from t-ball (she played for 2 years); played soccer for Spring and Fall for 4 Seasons of both (when she was age 4-7); tried cheerleading camp and gymnastics for 2 years, she is presently taking piano lessons (2 years) and she played softball this past summer and was fortunate enough to play on the All Star Team. Also, Lissie has taken swimming lessons as we have a pool and wanted to make sure that she had water skills, and if we were fortunate enough to adopt another child, we would make sure that child received lessons to be safe. If a child wants to try it, we will support that child and give them every opportunity to find out what makes them happy. Alyssa loves trains, so we have vacationed near the Strausburg Railroad for a few years and have rode Thomas the Tank Engine. We have a camper and it is 35 feet long and has two pullouts, so that our child(ren) would have their own area. We really enjoy going camping where they have many activities for children and to just be around a fire and cook marshmallows and make smores. We have been to numerous campgrounds throughout the State of PA that have offered our family and friends many fun things to do including: Campgrounds with their own waterparks and swimming pools, participated in minno races with fish, campground carnivals, firetruck rides, train rides, went as a family on bicycle trails, went outdoor hill tubing at Yogi Bear Park and it is so fun; we met Yogi Bear and Boo Boo at one of the campgrounds and went on a scavenger hunt. We have attended many Penn State activities as Don's brother lives in Penn State and Don is a Penn State Alumni so we get to see our family while attending events. We have been to Penn State games; attended Blue-White weekends, attended a breakfast for the Penn State Football coach and seniors, attended a carnival at the event, went ice skating at Penn State University's hockey rink and attended First Night out State College for New Years numerous times. We love waterparks and have went to Splash Lagoon a few times and stayed on site. We love the beach. We have been to the Pittsburgh Zoo, we attend outdoor drive-ins with friends and have a great time. We started going to Disney World when Alyssa had just turned 7 as we wanted her to be big enough to really enjoy most everything that they had to offer. We have been there twice and are planning a trip to go over Thanksgiving with some of our family members this year. We all love Disney World. It is the coolest place to go. I had been there a couple times years back with my friends, but I really have enjoyed going with our daughter and my husband. Alyssa celebrated her 9th birthday at Disney and we had dinner at the castle with Cinderella and all the other princesses as we surprised Alyssa with the trip for her birthday. We always get together with our families on the holidays as well as birthdays, and general occasions to be together. We also celebrate Alyssa's Adoption Day which is November 9 as her special day of when the Courts finalized their work and she was granted entirely to us as blood of our blood and life of our life, as the Judge stated to us. It was a wonderful day in our lives, other than the day she was placed in our home from the hospital. We embrace every moment and make memories with each other and our families. We are always planning the next event and we have a Saturday here and there that we just hang out, rent family movies, and eat popcorn at home. We are Christians and do attend our church every Sunday and do whatever we can to instill faith, kindness, forgiveness and love within our daughter as well as within ourselves. We try to lead by example, but there are times when we learn from our daughter's kindness to others.

Home and Community

Our family lives in the State of Pennsylvania. Our home is a two-story, three-bedroom, with an extended family room and a two-car garage on a corner lot. The color of our home is buttercup. Our yard is landscaped, with a big maple tree and a large wooden swing set in the back yard. We have a large deck on the back of our home with a gated swimming pool on one side and a seating area with a patio table, chairs, and a grill on the other side that leads into our family room from our French doors. Our home is approximately 1,750 square feet, and it has 3 bedrooms, a bath and half, a kitchen, living room, family room, sitting room, play room and a front porch with a porch swing and lounge chairs. We live in a rural community that is very close knit and very caring about the people that live there. We are a Block Parent Community. Our neighborhood is very safe and we know the majority of our neighbors. Many of the neighbors have children that attend school with Alyssa. People are friendly, concerned, but not nosey. This creates a great balance. The park is very handy to our home and is walkable. We go there a lot in the summer for events, games, concerts, etc. Our town has one of the largest 4th of July celebrations in the State of PA. People come from all over to attend the festivities & fireworks. We can walk to the parade in about 5 minutes to the place where we have sat for many years. People actually place their chairs on the sidewalks for the parade that will occur 12 hours later, and it seems that no one bothers the chairs in our community. Our town has a small Amphitheatre where they hold summer concerts and they advertise on our local TV station. These are all free events that we can walk to. Our school, Police Dept., Fire Company, Girl & Boy Scouts, Parent-Teacher Organization join to put on the First Night Out Event in Brockway every year which is a huge event and everyone has a wonderful time as there are giveaways, music, crafts, activities, free food and the children get to see everyone in the community celebrating the fact that our community is pretty safe. Our school is small and quaint. In our daughter's 5th grade class there are approximately 85 kids. I think that the entire school may be at 1,000 children (K-12). Our class size is smaller and if we have an issue with something, it is generally taken care of. Our daughter is a good student, but needs reinforcement in Math (she gets it) and if we need resources to help her, we let the school know. We would advocate for any child that was in our home if they had a need that was not being met. Where we live is kinda nice as we are only an hour from State College and Altoona, less than 2 hours from Pittsburgh, and 2 hours from Erie. We are truly close to the city, but have the convenience of being safe and secure where we live. Near our home and down the street they just established BC3 which I think is called Butler Community College, and it seems to be successful and I believe offer certificate program degrees. The Kwanias Club which has had numerous community activities within our town such as fire truck rides, cocoa and treat boxes during our Christmas Light Up Night; Halloween Costume Contests and parade as well as doing benefit dinners for local people that have needs. Their focus is children.

Parenting Experience

Donny and I always been there to assist with different activities and events within our community. We have helped with soccer practices and assisted the coaches of all of the teams that our daughter has ever been affiliated with. I was a Sunday School Teacher for many years before we had Alyssa and then when Alyssa was little I continued to teach. I have been a Bible School Teacher for our Church's summer program for the past 4 years. Donny has been in charge of preparing games based on the lesson and has worked with the children at Bible School over the past 4 summers where approximately 50 children from our community have attended. We were very involved with the our daughters softball team as assistant coaches and we both worked with these children from April through June everyday after work on building their softball skills, but also on the value of teamwork, commitment, kindness and friendships among these 9, 10 & 11 year old girls. We also worked and teamed with parents of all of the children on making sure there was someone to pick the children up, and that if any of the children had needs or were upset by matters in their personal lives that the coaches knew about, we would do our best to be supportive and let the child know that we were all there to listen. We worked very hard with the head coach, the other assistant coaches, as well as the parents to create a safe haven for these children. To some of the girls on our team coming to practice was the highlight of their days as they had issues at home to deal with, and we tried to make their experience very positive. Don and I have attended parent training classes in preparation of our daughter, Alyssa Jo's arrival. We also had to go through training classes with Lifespan. We have read many books that were recommended to us to prepare for adoption as well as for the foster care process in dealing with different matters that may arise and/or issues that we could run into. We also receive an adoption magazine every month that we read that discusses adoption and foster care issues. I have been a volunteer at my daughter's school in the classroom when I have been asked; and I am a member of our Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), where we have book fairs and a Christmas Market in the Fall that takes place at the school. These events help the school to earn monies for the kids to go on field trips as well as to help the schools offset monies to purchase Weekly Readers for the students and supplies for the teachers in our district. I have helped with some of the events that have occurred over the years since Alyssa has been in school. We are involved with Girl Scouts in our area. Alyssa has been involved in Girl Scouts since the 3rd grade. I am a helper mom that assists with projects during the evening of scouts as the leaders need. Through Girl Scouts: We have worked serving at Spaghetti Dinners along side of our daughter at the Legion to benefit those that have served our country. We have also worked at the food pantry packing boxes of food to help those families in our community that need assistance. We have always involved our family in the Angels program at Christmas Time and we ring the bell for the Salvation Army. We try to instill in Alyssa that it is really important to give back and to help those in your community who are less fortunate; or who just need you to open a door for them, or just a smile to make their day. To be the friend of the kid who needs a little help. We are very close to our niece & nephew as well as to my cousins' children, as my cousins are like sisters to me and our children are about the same age. These children go with us to the movies, to Chuckie Cheese (which is an activities center), camping, and they come to our home to swim and have play times with Alyssa. We have made an impact on these children as they are always very respectful to us, never give either Don or myself any trouble when they go places with us or are just hanging out at our home. These children really enjoy hanging out with us. We have learned over the years to take one day at a time and to be grateful for all things; and particularly for the fact that we have had the opportunity to be parents to Alyssa. This is the greatest gift of all. A hug, a look, a smile from that child makes it all worth it.

Support

We have a wonderful family, our parents, Don's brothers Carl John and Danny, their wives & children, as well as our cousins, their husbands, wives, and children as well my aunts and uncles have always been there if there were a need. We are a close family and when something happens we all know. If we would have a need it would be met by our family. To note, we have friends that would help us with any of our needs as we all have children the same age and would step up for each other. Our family would embrace any child that would be placed in our home. Alyssa loves her grandparents, her aunts, uncles, cousins and our close friends. She really does not feel that she is adopted. We are her family and she knows she is loved. We make her feel loved, wanted and needed everyday. Even when Alyssa does something naughty, we correct her by taking away a privilege, but we always tell her that we love her no matter what she has done. She has the opportunity to earn privileges back by being respectful & kind. Our support would be first from our family, but also our friends and neighbors have always been there for us. We have faith and we have a church family that if we had any stressful issues to deal with, our pastor would be there for our family as well. He has helped us deal with losses of family members who just pass on etc., over the years. I work at the Riverview IU and they provide services to children that have special needs. In the past, Don and I contacted the Riverview Intermediate Unit's preschool department when Alyssa was very young just in case we wanted her to be tested for Speech/Language, etc. Our school district has resources to assist in helping families with children that have learning needs or family issues. Our Adoption Agency, Life Span has been a good support for us when we have needs or questions. We have many local agencies that would assist in helping a family to locate resources that a child would need to be successful. Both Don and I are very diligent, resourceful, and persistent. If our child would ever have a need, we would do our research and usually we can find and have found what we need and the matter gets resolved one way or another. We would be as diligent and on top of matters with a child that was placed in our home as we are and have been with Alyssa.

Motivation to Adopt

We love being a mom and dad, we love and enjoy our daughter, and we really just like children. We can offer our love, time, our commitment and stability that is very beneficial to the positive growth of any child as well as to any adult to continue to prosper. Don and I had that in our childhood and we just want to share that. Don's parents have been married over 50 years and still really love each other and their children, grandchildren and greatgrand children; and my parents (Vicki's) were married 47 years and they were the same. We both have a good foundation for love and commitment to each other, but also to our children. We have been very committed, we have been trying to adopt a second child since Alyssa was about 4 years old. At that time, it was an infant; obviously, now we are trying to adopt an older child. We are aware that this child will and/or may have some baggage, and we will do our best to let this child know we are permanent and we are not going anywhere, and that we would be his/her forever mom, dad and sister. We are very aware of the challenges that we may face, that is why we are trying to make the best decisions for our family to minimize the unknown, by going into this open-minded and we are trying to be as honest as possible about what we can and cannot do. We have already adopted once and it was not without its struggles. Alyssa was a premature baby. She was 4 pounds/9 ounces and only 17 inches long. We were excited and stressed all at the same time. We went from no responsibilities to wow - a new baby, no sleep, lots of laundry, but lots of love. This was life changing, but worth every moment. Don & I would both would go back in a moment and do it all over again. We talked to our family everyday and I knew as she grew, the sleep would get better and it did. There is nothing better than the love of a child, their first step, and when a child calls you mommy or daddy that is awesome. Our daughter is now 10, she is smart, has meltdowns (like most kids), is wonderful and a challenge at times, and can say things that might hurt a mom's and/or a dad's feelings, like, "I wish I was with my birth mom, because you took away my kindle because I was backtalking." An hour later she apologizes and tells us that she loves us and that we are her mom and dad and that she would never want to leave us. That is what keeps all parents going. The challenges are there whether you birth your own, adopt, or just foster them. It is necessary to work at all of these aspects as a family to get through the good times and deal with the harder times, and to be strengthened by it all. Every child has awesome days when they do it all right, and they have bad days when everything goes haywire. We, "parents" are the same. Don & I try to remind ourselves that we aren't perfect either and that we to are always a work in progress, like our daughter, Alyssa. We try to remember to look for that shiney moment everyday to tell her she is awesome and that we are again grateful for this opportunity to have her in our lives. She makes us better people. Our family just asks God to give us patience, kindness and to be durable to get through things and to always remember that we love each other, and we are family.

Final Thought

Thanks for taking the time to read our Profile. We genuinely hope that we will have the opportunity to be a family to a child within your program. Please consider our family for a child as we would love to have that child in our family and give that child an opportunity to bloom and know that they have found their forever family; as well as us an opportunity for us to grow as a family. Don, Vicki and Alyssa Jo Dietz