ADOPTION STORIES:  Miracles do exist

Submitted by: Jimmy & Shayne Dodge

After struggling with infertility and many attempts to achieve pregnancy my husband and I turned to adoption to start a family

We contacted Social Development and were told that P.R.I.D.E. training for prospective older children adopters would begin in Nov. We were so excited to be starting our journey. We completed the P.R.I.D.E. training, home visits, and all paperwork. Our file was submitted and approved for an older child adoption. Now the adoption social worker(s) were extremely overwhelmed (nothing has changed there) so our home study was completed by one of the fostering system social workers. Having never been parents we felt that we could not take on more than 1 child at a time and no child with severe mental/physical issues. That apparently put us at the bottom of what we later found out LONG list of prospective adoptive parents. So we waited, every time the phone rang we jumped...nothing happened...for 7 1/2 years!!

We reached a point where we decided enough is enough and reached out to Social Development. We had decided to remove our names from the list. When we spoke with a social worker we were told that since we had been in the system the appropriate number of years we now qualified for the infant adoption list. Would we like to have our names added to the list and go through the approval process (minus the P.R.I.D.E. training) all over again. We thought it over and decided what the hell - we've waited this long, a little longer couldn't hurt.

We started our approval process on Feb. 14, 2008. On April 17, 2009 we received the phone call that forever changed our lives. Our son, Conner, had been born on April 2nd and we were top of the list. OMG the emotions. I turned into a Mom right then and there. I was calm, cool and taking down all the important facts. Birth date weight, eye color, hair color etc. Once my husband found out however, he became the nervous wreck. LOL on Monday, April 21st, 2009 we became a family of 3. Our son was 18 days old.

Fast Forward 3 years 10 months later we received another phone call that would, again, change our lives forever. Conner had a little sister!! Zoe was born Dec. 19, 2012 and as they shared the same biological mother we were automatically contacted first. We were in shock of course as we had closed our file and was content with our miracle boy. But I knew as I spoke to the social worker that this was our girl. So we once again re-did our file with health reports, criminal record check etc.. and on Feb. 27, 2013 we brought our 2 1/2 month old baby girl home.

Our story differs in many ways from the "typical" adoption story. Both our children were voluntarily surrendered by their birth parents. There was no neglect, abuse or drugs involved. We were truly blessed! Conner is now 10 and Zoe is almost 7. I hope our story gives someone hope. Miracles do exist. And our beautiful family is proof.

Jimmy & Shayne Dodge