Kim of New Jersey
I don't know where to start. I just saw your VH1 special on your adoption story and was touched beyond belief. I thank you for that story. When I was a young teenager, I experienced adoption. I have cousins that were adopted. From that moment on, I knew I wanted to adopt. Whether I could have a biological child or not, I had to adopt, to make a difference, it became part of my heart.
Years later, I had just gotten married. My husband knew I wanted to adopt a child. We pursued this only to find out it was too costly for us. I couldn't imagine the extreme cost to adopt internationally. We decided to not pursue it at that time. I was sad, then a co-worker told me about an organization that he adopted through in NJ. I called - this kind lady suggested we come in and sit in the class to become certified foster parents... because as she said, it wasn't for everyone. That Saturday, we went to our first class. They told us the number of children from birth through 18 years in our country without a family; our hearts sank. How could this be? We decided, at that moment, we would do this. It became our mission to do this. We have since evolved from being a foster/adoptive home to also a foster home. We have opened our hearts and home to many children & have loved them all. Some with great challenges, some with none. We've had the opportunity to help re-unify some & help them back to their families or close friends of family, with great joy in the outcome for their lives. We are now in the process of adopting one of our foster children. He is awesome. He came with some challenges (who doesn't) and we've worked through them. One of my greatest concerns, are the ignorant perceptions of other people as our child is a dark skinned, bi-racial, young man and we are light skinned american european descendants. We will continue the foster care, as there are too many children and not enough loving homes. This has been the hardest work I have ever done... but, it has been the most rewarding work I have ever done. Some day, when God asks... "how did you spend the time I gave you?", I now have an answer.
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