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Kelly and Roger
Oregon

Basic Info

Kelly

Age: 48
Sex: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Religion: Mormon-Church of the Latter Day Saints

Roger

Age: 45
Sex: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Religion: Mormon-Church of the Latter Day Saints

Child Preferences

Age: 8 to 16 years old
Sex: Either
Max Number of Children: 6
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian, African American, Asian, Native American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, Mixed, Bi-Racial, Unknown

Special Needs the Family is Open To: Moderate Physical/Medical Disability (Open to Discussion), Animal Allergies, Asthma, Drug Allergies, Environmental Allergies, Food Allergies, Physically Aggressive to Other Children, Defiant, Difficulty in Attaching, Difficulty Making Friends, Encopresis, Lying, Manipulative, Poor Social Skills, Self-Abuse, Stealing, Suicidal Attempts, Tantrums-Severe, Wets the Bed, Drug Addicted at Birth, Fetal Alcohol Effected, Low Birth Weight or Premature, Prenatal Drug Exposure, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Physically Disabled-Mild, Blind, Deaf, Hearing Impaired, Speech Delays - Mild, Speech Delays - Moderate, Speech Delays - Severe, Vision Impaired, Anorexia/Bulimia, Hoarding, Overeating, Pica, Academically behind due to poor attendance, Cognitive Delay - Mild, Expulsion(s), Has Behavior Problems in School, Mild Learning Disabilities, Moderate Learning Disabilities, Speech or Language Impairment, Suspension(s), One/Both Parents Diagnosed with Depression, One/Both Parents Have Alcohol Addiction, One/Both Parents Have Drug Addiction, One/Both Parents Diagnosed with Bipolar, Exposed to Domestic Violence, One/Both Parents Have Had a Mental Diagnosis, Child in Residential Treatment, Child has had a disrupted adoption, Multiple Placements, Residential Treatment History, Parents Willing to Seek Guardianship, Child on Probation / Parole, Convicted of Theft, Previously Incarcerated, ADHD, Arthritis, Diabetes, Epilepsy, Missing Limbs: May Require Prosthesis, Seizures, Adjustment Disorder, Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, Bipolar Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Depression, Intermittent Explosive Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Reactive Attachment Disorder, Requires Medication For Psychiatric Condition/Mental Health Diagnosis, Requires Counseling/Therapy, Destructive of Property, Runaway - Occasionally, Willing to Maintain Contact via Mail with Bio Family, Willing to Maintain Contact with Past Foster Parents, Willing to Maintain Contact with Bio Grandparents & Other Relatives, Willing to Maintain Contact with Bio Siblings, Sexually Abused in the Past

Environment

State: Oregon
Neighborhood: Country/Rural
Residency: Single Family Home
Years Together: 22
Children in the Home: 2
Pet(s): Dog(s), cat(s), farm animal(s), small animal/rodent(s), other

Work

Kelly

Occupation:

Roger

Occupation: Executive Director/Social Worker

Adoption Agency

Agency: A Family For Every Child
Worker: Stephanie Cummings
Worker: s.cummings@afamilyforeverychild.org
City: Eugene
State: Oregon
Zip: 97402

Family Description

We have been married for 23 years and live in a rural area in a large home on 2 ½ acres. We have two adult children who have moved out of the home and twin daughters, adopted 6 years ago, who are 12 years old. We enjoy our pets, which include horses, rabbits, dogs, and cats. We are looking forward to adding chickens this spring and possibly goats in the future. As a family we enjoy playing games, doing puzzles, watching movies, building with Legos, cooking, and traveling. We enjoy outside activities such as riding the four-wheelers, playing pickleball and frisbee golf, shooting baskets, swimming, and taking walks or riding our bikes. Additionally, we love to spend time enjoying the arts by going to the theaters watching plays, musical and dance productions, magic shows, and visiting museums. We enjoy serving and helping in our community and as a family volunteer monthly at the local homeless shelter and regularly in other community service projects. Roger, the father, enjoys watching movies, playing video games, building with Legos, grilling, playing the piano and tuba, listening to music, following sports, and taking kids one-on-one for mini vacations. Kelly, the mother, enjoys clog dancing, sewing, playing games, puzzles, art projects, and building things. She additionally enjoys the outdoors, especially hiking, camping, fishing, and exploring. Jema, a 12-year-old daughter, is into fashion, art, singing, music, and reading. She prides herself in how quickly she can read large chapter books. Jema loves to dress up fancy and put on makeup, especially when it’s time for her daddy-daughter date. She is very creative, enjoying sewing, creating with all sorts of art supplies, and building with Legos. Nicole, a 12-year-old daughter, is all about animals. She loves to ride her horse, play with her rabbits, and volunteer weekly at the local humane society with dogs and cats. Nicole likes to read books, play games, and do arts and crafts. She enjoys the outdoors, camping, hiking, exploring, and spending time with her animals. As a family, we are regularly engaged in religious activities. We attend church Sundays as well as Wednesday evening youth groups. Roger and Kelly volunteer in their church working in youth programs. We find that reading scripture and praying together daily helps strengthen family bonds. Together, we have a large variety of experience and skills working with children and youth. Roger has a master's degree in Social Work where he has spent over 20 years working with at-risk youth and children as well as families who needed additional support. Roger is a certified Love and Logic instructor, helping parents who struggle with children with challenging behaviors. Kelly has a master's degree in Early Childhood Education with an emphasis on children with challenging behaviors. She has worked with children between the ages of 0-12 years old for over 20 years. Additionally, she used to present at conferences for teachers, parents, and other professionals, teaching skills to effectively work with children in a variety of settings. Together, our focus is on teaching social and emotional skills to children and adults. We have had many foster children placed with us whom we are still in contact with regularly. We have decided to change to adoption rather than foster care, as we see the need for permanency for so many children. We are hoping to find a sibling group of school-age children who very much desire to stay together and where structure and consistency will best benefit them. We believe that our training and experience help us provide an environment that can support children with trauma, and provide connection as well as individual attention.

Preference Description

Interested in a sibling group of older children, at least 6 years old for the youngest child. We will accept severe to moderate emotional and behavioral needs and mild to moderate physical needs, with severe risk factors.

The Condie Family Profile

We are excited to extend our family by adopting a sibling group, preferably with 4-5 children who are between the ages of 5-14 who wish to remain together and find their forever family. We will consider children slightly older or younger than these ages who are part of a sibling group, however we are not seeking infants or toddlers. We are open to any gender, but are limited to two bedrooms for the children to share, one bedroom is large enough for two sets of bunk beds and the other has one set of bunk beds. We are open to any ethnicity, but feel we can best support Caucasian and Hispanic as this is represented in our extended family, in our schools, church and communities, and in our profession. We understand that many times children have emotional bonds and attachments to biological family and past care givers and are willing to support their need for continued contact with important people in their lives.

Introduction

Our hearts are open, all ready to grow our family! We have been married 16 years and raised two children; Kelly's biological son, now 21 and serves in the US Army, and our daughter who was adopted as a toddler, now 18 and lives nearby. We love to do things together as a family, but also believe each child needs and deserves our one on one, individualized attention and time.

As a family, we love to do a variety of activities. We enjoy the outdoors such as hiking, boating, fishing, camping, and enjoying the beauty that nature has to offer. We love to spend time at the park, having picnics and playing sports such as soccer, volleyball, frisbee golf, basketball, baseball, and tennis. We love it when we are able to attend local and major league sporting events. We also attend a variety of entertainment shows throughout the year including concerts, the symphony, magic shows, dance productions, the circus, ice skating, family comedy shows, and other stage productions. We like to visit museums and historical places and learn about history and culture, especially when we travel. At home, we enjoy watching movies, playing board games and the Wii, cooking, and holding social gatherings with friends while cooking on the bbq and playing yard games. We look forward to once again supporting the children we adopt in their desires to participate in sports, music lessons, art, dance or martial arts lessons.

We believe education is important. We understand that for children to be successful in school, they need to have the proper support, encouragement, and internal motivation. We love to help children and young adults explore their personal interest, strengths, passions, and desires and use those to reach personal goals. We help children believe in themselves and feel the exhilaration of success. While we both work full time, Kelly has a flexible schedule and Roger gets off work at 1pm each day and will always be home to support the children in completing their homework. We both have served on parent boards at the school, make it to parent/teacher conferences, and participate in other school events and extra-curricular activities. Because education is important to us, we have both completed our master's degree, Roger in Social Work and Kelly in Early Childhood Education, and we are committed to supporting our children in any level of education and training they seek to fulfill their life long career dreams.

Our faith is important to us. We raised our children to have values and morals and to believe in God. We actively attend church each Sunday and support the youth groups and serve as Sunday School teachers. We have taught our children the value of serving others through regularly serving throughout our community as well as participating in a family Christmas service project as part of our holiday tradition.

Home and Community

We live in Ogden, Utah, a suburban city with much history. It is nestled up against the mountains and within 30 minutes of snow resorts, reservoirs, mountain hiking and biking trails, and a large array of other outdoor recreational activities. There are many arts and cultural opportunities. We are 45 minutes away from a major city, Salt Lake City, Utah's capital and filled with much history, the zoo, and home to many museums and theaters.

We live at the base of a mountain in a single family home with three bedrooms and two bathrooms. We have a beautiful outdoor yard where we love to spend time. We have one dog who is 14 years old and great with children. We are open to having additional pets, however, we are both allergic to cats. We are within walking distance of the elementary school, the community park, church, and hiking trails. The middle and high school are within a couple miles from our home. Ogden is home to Weber State University and the Ogden-Weber Applied Technology College where high school students are encouraged to become concurrently enrolled, seeking a career path.

Kelly works as the director of a preschool and after school/summer program for children between the ages of 2-12 so if there are times younger children are not in school, they can go to work with Kelly and participate in the many activities there.

Parenting Experience

As we raised our two children and helped them through childhood and now into adulthood, we have learned that each child is unique with individual needs and interests. Every child needs to have clear boundaries, rules, and expectations, but be given room to explore, experiment, make their own decisions, and learn through their own mistakes. Each child is blessed with talents and abilities that when recognized, can be a strength to them and a blessing to others.

Our son, KC struggled with ADHD. Despite being academically advanced, he had social challenges which led to many disciplinary problems through all of school. We spent a lot of time working with his principles, teachers, and school counselors to develop academic and behavior plans that would help him grow. We took the time to research and learn all we could about his circumstances and what we could do to support him. KC was able to run track and cross country, learned martial arts, learned to play the clarinet and guitar, and participated on school and community sport teams. We supported his strengths and talents, but provided him with the structure he needed to succeed. He ended up graduating from high school at age 16, started attending college, and joined the military, his dream, at age 17.

Our daughter, Amanda also struggled. In her first two years of life she experienced a lot of changes and went between many different care givers before we adopted her from foster care. When she was younger, she went through speech therapy and academic struggles in school. She struggled with reactive attachment disorder and personality disorder. Again, we took time to learn about these conditions and her specific needs and worked with her counselors to get through her struggles. Amanda was able to graduate high school while being dual enrolled at the technology school and is able to support herself. She still requires support and assistance from us at times, but she is doing well supporting herself.

In addition to our parenting experiences, both of us have had training and education in working with children and adults who have experienced trauma in their lives and with mental illnesses. Roger is a mental health therapist, working with those who have addictions to overcome their trials and move on to a healthier life. Over the past 16 years as a social worker, Roger has worked with those with disabilities, at-risk children, youth in the juvenile detention center, and the homeless population. He is also a certified instructor for Becoming a Love and Logic Parent. Kelly has worked with children age 0-12 for the past 22 years. She has spent the last 5 years working as a program director for a non-profit childcare center that works with low-income families. Her specialty is designing positive behavior support (PBS) plans for children with extreme challenging behaviors. She coaches the staff on classroom management techniques and teaching social emotional skills to children. Together, we enjoy presenting at local and state conferences on strategies to work with caregivers for children with challenging behaviors. Through both of our schooling and experience, we have a wide variety of training to work with many challenges that come with raising children.

Support

We are both from large families and have great support with our siblings and parents. Roger ???? ???? ???? s father and brother live within an hour from our home. Kelly ???? ???? ???? s parents and sister live within an hour from our home. Any of these family members are willing and available to help as needed. We have lived in the same home for the past 8 years and have formed some very close friends in our neighborhood and church. There is one family in particular, who has five children ranging in age from 5-16 years old, who we do many things with every week. Additionally, Kelly has some close ties in her place of employment with adults who are willing and able to provide assistance as needed.

Motivation to Adopt

When our last child moved out of the house in May of 2015, we enjoyed the next several months of empty nesting. Pretty soon, we realized that we missed sharing so many experiences with children. We feel we are both young with the financial means and a big heart to raise children. Kelly is 40 and Roger is 37. Together we feel like we have many more years of strong parenting in our lives. While we remember that not every day was easy, we love teaching, we love introducing children to new experiences, and we love watching children grow to fulfill their dreams. We began missing the little things and noticed the changes in our household without children such as quiet mornings and the different conversations around the dinner table. We have always desired to adopt more children and have even taken the foster parenting class several times in the past, but it never seemed to be the right time. Now, as we look at two empty bedrooms and extra time on our hands, we are ready to extend our family and share our love with children who want a family and need a place to call home.