Christopher

On Memorial Day weekend in 2007, we got a call to do respite for a 13-month old little baby boy.  We were thrilled to have a little baby to take care of and Cristyn couldn't wait to push him around in the stroller.  We absolutely loved holding him and taking care of him.  By that following Tuesday, our agency had asked us to take him as a placement.  Hubby and I were beaming and Cristyn was joyously walking him around in the stroller and playing with him.  We were thrilled to have a baby in the house again!  Christopher had us all wrapped around his fingers.  He was a little tornado of constant energy and kept us on our toes.

Over time, we had him in speech and occupational therapy and we were working on some behaviors.  He could demolish a room within seconds and didn't know how to play.  He wouldn't listen to the word "no."  He was very strong-willed and that's putting it mildly.  I thought that he'd grow out of it as he got used to boudnaries and rules.

His CPS worker came to visit him and couldn't get over the change in his demeanor.  I asked her what she meant by that and she said that he was so happy and that he smiles now whereas before he would just kind of stare at her with no expression.  That broke my heart.  She asked us if we would consider adoption as his birthmom was going back and forth on the idea.  I said that we would.

I met his birthmom a couple of months later and she brought adoption up to me.  She was undecided, but she asked me if we would adopt him.  I told her that yes, we would if that is what she decided.

Shortly after he turned 2, CPS started thinking about changing his plan from reunification to termination and putting him up for adoption.  Birthmom just wasn't working her case plan and was doing things that were unsafe for him.  That went back and forth for awhile...what a rollercoaster of emotions.  Then birthmom decided that she didn't like being separated from Christopher and they talked about placing him back with her in a group home environment if she'd work her case plan.  We had a court hearing and were considering hiring our own attorney to fight for him.  However, his birthmom failed to show up to court or work any of her case plan.  The district attorney came out to tal to us and asked us if we were considering adoption and what our intentions were.  We told her that we would adopt Christopher in a heartbeat.  She told us that she was going to postpone court as she only had 2/3 grounds covered to terminate birthmom's rights.  We came back about a month later and once again, birthmom failed to show.  She hadn't shown up to her visit that they had scheduled for her with him either...come to find out that had been her good-bye visit.  They wound up putting me on the stand in court to state how he had been like after the handful of visits that he did have with birthmom.  All the workers were in agreement that adoption by us was in his best interest.  Termination of parental rights on his birthmom and birthdad were grated.  About 6 months later, we were back in adoption court and Christopher became our son forever.  He was 3 years old!  God had granted us our son and I cried tears of joy!