Pam and Gary- Family Profile

Introduction

My name is Pamela. I am currently 43 years old and was born in Panama City, Panama while my dad was stationed in the Army. I have 4 children in the home including my birth daughter and my adopted children. My children's names are Zebadiah, Ariella, Austin and Sophia and they are 2, 6, 9 and 14 years old, respectively. I also have two adult children that I adopted over twenty years ago, Tiffany and Jay pictured here in our family portrait along with Tiffany's future husband. My children enrich my family with their caucasian and hispanic ethnic background. My hobbies include spending time with my family. We enjoy swimming in our pool, outings to the park, sightseeing, fishing. We enjoy both day trips to caverns, zoos, museums, as well as a yearly vacation. I also enjoy painting and other types of art. My partner and future husband, Gary, and I have been together for seven years and he is the father figure to my little ones. Gary has three grown children of his own, close to the ages of my oldest two children, who we have enjoyed raising together throughout their teen years during the time we have been together. He enjoys spending time with us and going on outings and vacations with us. He also likes to take the boys fishing, playing ball, and enjoys model trains. He has supported me throughout my entire foster /adopt adventure. We met at our church where we both worked as youth leaders. I work full-time for our local school as a teacher and have a flexible work schedule, I am also able to take time off when I adopt so that I can bond with my children. We believe that if you put God first everything else will come into place. We believe every child has the right to have a safe loving home. We believe that you should put others first. We feel that you should show at least one small act of kindness each day. We are Christians and try our best to instill Christian values within our family. We have been active in our church. We have dinner together each night where we pray together and talk about our days, a time all of the children enjoy.

Our favorite TV shows are Good Luck Charlie, the Waltons, Sophia the First, and HGTV. When we gather, we usually gather in family room and back deck. We like to spend time swimming in the pool, playing on the playground, and playing ball in the yard. When we can't go outside we enjoy playing in the basement recreation area and watching family movies. We take time to travel together as a family.

Home and Community

We live in the State of West Virginia. Our home is a single family home on five beautiful acres. There is lots of room to play and explore. We live in a Country/Rural neighborhood, a small town well know for our art galleries. We are good friends with our neighbors.

We live in a two story home with a finished basement and large two story deck in the back. Our home has five bedrooms with plans in the works to add two more bedrooms to allow more room to spread out when we are able to adopt again. Our home is located on five acres in the country with a large yard as well as a wooded area and stream in the back of the property. We have a fenced in ground pool and play yard for the children to enjoy.

I would like to offer the same activities to my next child as I have all of my other children. I would bring them up in the church with Christian values, we would offer sports, dance, gymnastics, 4-H, girl scouts, etc to our children, We have a state park just two miles away that has swimming, hiking, horseback riding, boating, fishing etc. Children here are interested in a variety of things. We have an active sports community. My eight year old has been playing soccer for three years and my thirteen year old has been active in both softball and basketball. We also have a dance studio and gymnastics offered in the area that my six year old looks forward to each week. We have an active 4-H club, girl scouts and boy scouts. We have several schools in the area. We have a three pre school locations, one of these is offered at our local daycare. We have a K-2 school, a 3-5 school, a middle school and a high school. We belong to 4-H as a family. We are also members of our local church which is just two mies away from our home. All of my children are active in 4-H and are able to have at least one personal activity.

Parenting Experience

I have been a foster/adopt mom for nine years. I have taken care of several children including single children and sibling groups. I have been blessed to have been able to adopt three of these children. I have also adopted a sibling group twenty years ago as toddlers in a kinship adoption. They are adults now. Gary has three adult children. All in all we have twenty years of experience being parents. We have dealt with babies born exposed to drugs and alcohol, premature babies, ADHD, partial blindness, hereditary disease, behavior disorders, chronic lung disease, sexually reactive children, RAD etc. We have both had Pride training, first aide, CPR, CPI training, and trauma training.

I would say that I am giving, artistic, and caring.

I have had lots of experience dealing with the issues of foster children. Each child that comes to me comes with varying degrees of baggage from their history and each has something to teach me. I have been taking trainings for seven years to keep my foster to adopt license current. This has covered a multitude of issues and skills. I have taken Pride training, CPR, first aide, CPI. I also receive training form work as a teacher. Our schedules will change to adapt to our new additions. We will need to make time for getting everyone ready in the morning, make sure all appointments are met, see what interest the new child/children may have. We will adapt to what ever is needed. I have a lot of leave time built up to be able to take an extended period of time off to be at home bonding with my newest children. I have had training on CPI, CPR, first aide, raising a multicultural family, sexually reactive, babies born addicted, just to name a few. Every training has given me insight into new information.

Support

Motivation to Adopt