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Ashley and Ben
Missouri

Basic Info

Ashley

Age: 38
Sex:
Race/Ethnicity:
Religion:

Ben

Age: 42
Sex:
Race/Ethnicity:
Religion:

Child Preferences

Age: Infant to 7 years old
Sex: Either
Max Number of Children: 2
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian, African American, Asian, Native American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, Mixed, Bi-Racial

Special Needs the Family is Open To: Mild Physical/Medical Disability (Open to Discussion), Asthma, Drug Allergies, Environmental Allergies, Food Allergies, Difficulty Making Friends, Poor Social Skills, Stealing, Wets the Bed, Drug Addicted at Birth, Failure to Thrive, Fetal Alcohol Effected, Low Birth Weight or Premature, Prenatal Drug Exposure, Gastric Tube, Requires Life-long Medical Treatment, Requires Life-long Supervision, Tracheotomy, Non-Ambulatory, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Physically Disabled-Mild, Hearing Impaired, Intellectual Disability - Mild, Speech Delays - Mild, Speech Delays - Moderate, Vision Impaired, Hoarding, Overeating, Academically behind due to poor attendance, Cognitive Delay - Mild, Has Behavior Problems in School, Mild Learning Disabilities, Moderate Learning Disabilities, Speech or Language Impairment, One/Both Parents Diagnosed with Depression, One/Both Parents Have Alcohol Addiction, One/Both Parents Have Drug Addiction, Exposed to Domestic Violence, Child has had a disrupted adoption, Multiple Placements, Limited Life Expectancy Due to Illness, ADHD, Arthritis, Cancer, Cerebral Palsy, Cystic Fibrosis, Diabetes, Down Syndrome, Epilepsy, Heart Disorder: May Require Surgery, Hemophilia, Missing Limbs: May Require Prosthesis, Seizures, Sickle Cell Disease, Sickle Cell Traits, Spinal Bifida, Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, Requires Counseling/Therapy, Runaway - Past, Willing to Maintain Contact with Past Foster Parents

Environment

State: Missouri
Neighborhood: Suburban
Residency: Single Family Home
Years Together: 8
Children in the Home: 2
Pet(s): Dog(s)

Work

Ashley

Occupation:

Ben

Occupation: Pilot

Adoption Agency

Agency: Healthy Families, Cornerstones of Care
Worker: Katie Franklin
Worker: katie.franklin@cornerstonesofcare.org
City: Kansas City
State: Missouri
Zip: 64111

Preference Description

We are looking to adopt a sibling group of two, but might consider three. We are most comfortable with developmental needs/delays and medical needs versus severe behavioral and mental concerns. We are open to considering all children, case-by-case.

The Williams Family Profile

We would like to adopt children who are less than 8 years old. We are open to boys or girls, and feel we can accommodate a sibling group of up to 2 kids. Any ethnic background will blend in with our family. We would to adopt a sibling group. We are most comfortable with a sibling group of two, but might consider three. We are most comfortable with developmental needs/delays and medical needs versus severe behavioral and mental concerns. We understand that many things listed can happen on a spectrum, and are open to considering each child on a case by case basis.

Introduction

Our names are Ben and Ashley Williams. We are currently 34 and 30 years old. We have two children, Madilyn and Zachariah, who are 7 and 4 years old. Like us, our children have a caucasian ethnic background. Ben loves to fly, listen to classical music, and play with his children. Ashley loves to sing, listen to music, read, write, and play with her children. Madilyn loves to dance, read, learn about horses, and play with her brother and parents. Zachariah loves to play superheroes, play with his cars and jets, and play with his sister and parents. I am a stay-at-home mother with a background in elementary education and children's ministry. Ben works full-time as a USAF pilot, but is currently enrolled in Commander's school and has very flexible hours. We are a family that is very grounded in our faith. We go to a Southern Baptist church on Sunday mornings and are involved in various activities for adults and for kids throughout the week. The kids LOVE attending AWANAs on Wednesday nights. We believe that each person/child is fearfully and wonderfully made and deserves to be a part of a loving family and community that teaches them about the love of Christ and about their uniqueness and value in Him.

Our family thrives off of time spent together! We truly love being together! It is not often that we watch television as a family, but try to make it special when we do. We most often will watch a movie and often have movie nights and pizza on Friday nights. We love watching Disney and Pixar movies. We also will watch holiday specials that come on and plan for a special night of popcorn and hot chocolate to watch those. We most often listen to country and Christian music. We also listen to Kids Praise CDs and Disney soundtracks.

We spend most of our time at home either playing outside or playing inside. Both of the children attend school and when they come home they do their homework, and then it's time to play! If the weather is nice, we like to go to a park that is in our neighborhood or simply in the backyard with our two dogs, Brazos and Muffin. Electronics and television are limited as we seek to foster imagination and learning through play in our home. Madilyn attends tap and ballet classes, and Zachariah is usually involved in seasonal sports. Once a month, the kids are able to attend "Kids Night Out" at our local YMCA and enjoy making crafts, playing games, and having dinner....and we enjoy having a date night!

Home and Community

We live in a single family home in a suburban neighborhood in the State of Missouri. We live in a quiet, family-friendly neighborhood and are friends with our neighbors. We have two dogs, Brazos and Muffin who are both as sweet as can be and bring much joy to our lives!

We often like to spend time together doing new things! We do regularly go to the library and the YMCA, but we also will attend community events, recitals, and school programs. We like to experience new things with our children, so we plan weekend trips to zoos, museums, apple farms or pumpkin patches, and any other event in the area that we hear about! There are many activities available in our community. Our ciity has a dance and martial arts studio. We are members of the local YMCA, which offers swimming, culinary classes, and a kid zone for children. We also have churches and schools that have various events throughout the week that children can attend. Our local library often hosts kid-friendly events and has a story time for preschool age children every Tuesday morning. Our schools have been amazing. There is a part-day Pre-K that is offered four days a week that we have loved sending our son to. We are pleased with the elementary school and with services that are offered within it. Teachers and staff have been amazing about communicating with us. We feel, overall, that our city schools are a safe and fun learning environment for our children with plenty of supports if needed.

Parenting Experience

Ben and I have two children who are the majority of our parenting experience. They are both healthy now, but we have been through medical/developmental issues with both of them. Madilyn was born with torticollis and had to have physical therapy and wear a helmet for about 6 months. She also is in speech at school for articulation only. Zachariah had breath-holding spells that looked like seizures when he was an infant up to two years old. We were told he'd grow out of it, and he did. Both of these scenarios allowed us to learn about advocating for our children in medical and school environments. We learned how to be patient and committed to their successes. They are both thriving in school and all health issues or concerns are in the past. Beyond these needs, we've learned so much about ourselves through parenting our two children. They bring out the best in us and the desire to be our best for them. We are happy to have raised/continue to raise healthy, well-adjusted, and compassionate children who are doing well socially, academically, and emotionally. We truly feel blessed to be parents! I believe that our family's strengths are each other. We are a military family and so the constant in our lives is our family. We work hard to nurture and protect that. Our faith gives us a heart of compassion and we teach our children to have compassion and empathy for all people. My husband is a pilot in the USAF, and his job provides us with financial stability. It also has allowed me to stay at home for the developmental years of our children and will allow me to continue to stay at home for the benefit of the children that we will welcome into our home. Our entire family is in support of adoption, and we have talked about it for almost 3 years with our children. Our commitment to one another, to loving others well, and to working and acting in our daily lives in a way that is God-honoring is something that I think is becoming more unique in our culture. We truly thrive off of quality time as a family and enjoy one another's company. Laughter and love fill our home on a daily basis. Our family will handle the challenges that come with adoption from foster care as they come. We are aware that challenges will come, but we will choose to stay positive. My husband and I communicate regularly, and we communicate with our children on their level when needed about the process. We don't make promises about any of it and are always sure to emphasis the flexibility in the process and the flexibility needed and changes that will come after adoption. For our own children, we've worked on communicating with them and listening to them throughout the whole process. We've also discussed certain scenarios and proper responses. We also have identified foster and adoptive friends and people in our area so that we can have a support system as we walk this path. I believe that my background in elementary education and children's ministry will give me an understanding and a toolbox to draw from for help for any adjustment and transition for all children involved. We have completed our STARS training in the state of Missouri, and will complete our Spaulding training on December 5th. We have read various books about adoption. My husband and I have both had child development courses in the completion of our Graduate degrees, and my background is Elementary Education(Undergraduate) and Children's Ministry(Graduate).

Support

Our family, friends, church, our adoption agency, our training agency, and the local school are our supports in our area. There are plenty of early intervention services in our area, and we are quite confident of the supports in our school system as well. We are very supported! Our children have an extended family that loves them and we all communicate and see each other often. Ashley's parents are still married and she has a brother and sister with two nephews and a niece. Ben's parents are still married and he is the oldest of five siblings! There is a lot of love that surrounds us and a lot of love to be shared with the new members of our family.

Motivation to Adopt

We want to adopt from foster care because its something that we've always felt would be a part of our family. Ben and I discussed adoption from foster care long before we even knew we'd be married! We want to show a child that they can have a forever family that is committed to them and their success in life. We want to share that family should be a loving, safe environment that loves despite past, despite faults, and despite any thing that may come in the future. Family should be a constant. We want our children to know that we will move mountains to help them when needed, that their life matters to us, that we believe God created them for a specific purpose, and that we love them not based on blood, behavior, successes, or failures, but simply because we believe that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. We will love you, support you, speak to you with respect, listen to you, hold you, sit quietly to let you know we are simply there. We will do whatever it takes to let you be who you want to be, to reach your goals, and to help you realize that we have loved you, we do love you...forever!