Basic Info

Elise

Age: 40
Sex: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian, Hispanic
Religion: None

Josh

Age: 42
Sex: Male
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Religion: None

Child Preferences

Age: 4 to 11 years old
Sex: Either
Max Number of Children: 2
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian, African American, Asian, Native American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander

Special Needs the Family is Open To: Mild Physical/Medical Disability, Difficulty in Attaching, Difficulty Making Friends, Encopresis, Lying, Manipulative, Poor Social Skills, Self-Abuse, Stealing, Tantrums-Severe, Wets the Bed, Occupational Therapy, Physically Disabled-Mild, Blind, Hearing Impaired, Speech Delays - Mild, 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, Speech or Language Impairment, Suspension(s), One/Both Parents Have Alcohol Addiction, One/Both Parents Have Drug Addiction, 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, Arthritis, Cancer, Diabetes, Epilepsy, Heart Disorder: May Require Surgery, HIV, Missing Limbs: May Require Prosthesis, Seizures, Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Previous Psychiatric Hospitalization, Reactive Attachment Disorder, Requires Medication For Psychiatric Condition/Mental Health Diagnosis, Schizophrenia, Destructive of Property, Runaway - Occasionally, Runaway - Past, 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, History of Sexually Acting Out, Sexually Abused in the Past

Environment

State: Oregon
Neighborhood: Suburban
Residency:
Years Together: 21
Children in the Home: 1
Pet(s): Cat(s), small animal/rodent(s)

Work

Elise

Occupation: Project Managing Consultant

Josh

Occupation: Engineering Technician

Adoption Agency

Agency: A Family For Every Child
Worker: Elyse Hoots
Worker: elyse@afamilyforeverychild.org
City: Eugene
State: Oregon
Zip: 97402

Family Description

Team Morris is made up of Elise (she/her), Josh (he/him), and 9 year old bio-kid Ashton (he/him). We have always envisioned having 2-3 children, and are excited to grow our family to its final awesome form. We hope that the kiddo(s) who find us will enjoy having Ash as a brother, he’s very good with other kids of all ages and looks forward to someone to play and do sibling things with. Ashton has two friendly guinea pigs, Jesse and Petra. We have recently added two friendly kitties to the family, their names are Appa and Momo and they were adopted in late November 22, when they were about 10 weeks old. We live in Beaverton, a suburb of Portland, OR. Our house has a large backyard, and is on a quiet street where the neighborhood kids constantly run and play. As a family, we love playing board games, reading, learning things, getting creative with art and building projects, watching movies together, and hanging out with family and friends. Elise’s family is very close, her mother and four younger siblings especially, and they are constantly connected virtually or in person. Our immediate neighborhood is majority white, though Ashton attends a nearby Spanish immersion school with decent diversity and a good number of our close family friends are BIPOC/mixed. We speak English at home, though Ash is learning Spanish at school and Elise speaks a little conversational Spanish. We are not members of organized religion, but we do celebrate American cultural holidays—Christmas and Halloween especially are our favorites, we make a big deal out of those. We believe in kindness, openness, showing up for social justice in and outside of our home, and compassion towards others. Elise is a freelance project and events manager. She is a driven personality who loves reading, dressing up, live performance (attending and performing,) and bringing people together. Elise also enjoys dancing, and especially loves dance and music from the SWANA (Southwest Asia/North Africa) regions. Josh runs a lab at Intel, where he works in Quality and Reliability department with a variety of teams around the world. It’s mostly a work-from-home job, which he enjoys a lot. Josh is an introvert who enjoys video games and board games, doing home projects, and hanging out in small groups. Ashton is in fourth grade. He loves making art, obstacle courses and building “contraptions”, as well as playing video games such as Minecraft and Super Smash Brothers. He likes to play soccer and basketball, gymnastics and parkour classes, and create his own comics. Ash is an extremely kind and sharing kid who’s great at expressing his emotions and does really well with rules and structure—one thing he’s working on is cultivating a more flexible mindset. We are excited to open ourselves to the challenges and rewards of welcoming another kiddo to complete our family. Josh and Elise are well-versed in emotional communication and are studying hard to gain experience in trauma-informed care and guidance to be better prepared to meet the needs of future kiddos.

Preference Description

We are looking to adopt a child 4-11 y/o, of any ethnic background. We are able to accommodate minor medical conditions and special needs such as PTSD and attachment/learning/developmental delays. No serious, permanent medical disability.

Team Morris Profile

We are hoping to welcome a child or pair of siblings into our family! We do not have any preference for gender, ethnicity, or identity. We have worked hard to make sure we are prepared to welcome the kiddo(s) where they're at, in a trauma-informed way that honors their history, culture, and all the things that make up their beautiful self. We are especially well educated around and connected to the LGBTQIA+ community, and passionate about supporting queer youth.

Introduction

We are a family who love creating a safe and fun home base, from which to head out on adventures. We put a lot of love, care, and playfulness into our house and yard, and enjoy hosting friends and family when we can. We love to read, play video games and board games together, do art projects, and ride bikes to one of the local parks. We like to go on trips to the beach, the rivers, local attractions, or even Disneyland! (Elise has a lot of family in SoCal). Dinner is always a group activity, and after dinner we spend time together watching movies, playing games, or doing projects together. Spontaneous dance parties happen often.

Home and Community

We live in a two-story home with a yard full of garden beds, honey bees, yard toys and a swing. Our neighborhood street has several groups of children who are constantly riding bikes and playing up and down the cul de sacs. Ashton attends a public Spanish immersion school, and there are several English-speaking public schools nearby too. Ash enjoys going to gymnastics classes, swimming, and taekwando at the community centers close by. We often ride bikes or walk to one of the nearby parks.

Parenting Experience

Elise and Josh both grew up the eldest of multiple siblings, and benefitted from learning to care for younger children early in life. Elise in particular started babysitting as a job very young, and continued with Early Childhood Education psych classes through college. Raising Ashton has given both of us great experience being active, engaged parents. Ashton has some sensory issues (proprioception and loud noises) that he is working with an OT and therapist around, to great effect. Josh and Elise have been taking parenting classes and reading lots of books geared towards foster and adoptive kids (trauma-based education) over the past few years. Ongoing couples and individual therapy over the years has helped both of us identify some things we did not benefit from in our own upbringing, and helped us find ways to become the kind of connected, supportive parents we strive to be.

Support

We have a lot of local family that we are very close to. Josh's brother and his girlfriend, two of Elise's four adult siblings, both Josh and Elise's mothers, and Elise's dad and his wife are all local and we see them as often as possible. We have a wide network of close friends as well, who we support and have gotten much support from over the years, through fun times and difficult ones. We are also a therapy-as-wellness-tool household; Elise, Josh, and Ashton all regularly see a therapist for ongoing support and continual self-improvement.

Motivation to Adopt

Josh, Elise, and Ashton are all 100% committed to the adoption process and permanent placement, even with challenges that may arise. Josh and Elise have always planned to add to the family, and Ashton has always wanted a sibling. We have the space in our home and in our lives that we would love to fill with an adopted family. We are trying to be as prepared as possible, and set ourselves up with access to plenty of support and additional educational materials ready to go if we run into an issue we need more help with. We have put a lot of energy into creating a network that will help us along the way. We know it might be hard, but we cannot wait to go through the process and welcome another kiddo (or pair) into our family.