All Children Need a Forever Family

By Robbi Haynes

Kids who need a “forever family” come in all sizes and shapes. Sometimes they are tiny babies, whose mother has chosen an adoption plan rather than an abortion. Sometimes they are a school age sibling group in foster care that needs to be placed in the same home. Sometimes the kids are teens who need a family to help them complete their school years and become the family they return to for holidays. No matter the age, gender or ethnicity of children, they all deserve a family of their own.

Successful adoptions are evidenced in the joy shining in children’s faces when they meet extended family for the first time. David loves to talk about meeting his grandparents when he was eight years old and had just been welcomed to his “forever family” after living in foster homes and residential centers from the age of two. He remembers the first tractor ride with his grandfather and what a different experience it was from the large inner city where he had spent the first eight years of his life.

Successful adoptions are evidenced in the pride a birth mother shows when she lights the Unity Candle at her daughter’s wedding before passing it to the daughter’s adoptive mother and father. When the birth mother experienced an unplanned pregnancy as a young adult, she wanted to continue a relationship with the daughter who would be placed for adoption. The adoptive parents felt it would be in the best interest of their daughter, Shelly, to continue that relationship and her birth mother and later siblings became “extended family” to Shelly’s adoptive family. Many enjoyable times with the families together have given Shelly a sense of security and self-understanding that culminated in both mothers participating in her wedding day.

Successful adoptions are evidenced in the adoption court hearing of Liza. At the age of ten she came into a foster family which was her fifteenth placement. After just a few months, the foster family knew they wanted to be her “forever family” and began the process to adopt her. When the adoption was finalized in court, it was a true celebration of permanency in a young life whose only experience had been uncertainty and pain.

Adoption is the permanent, legal transfer of parental rights and responsibilities from a child’s birth parents to the adoptive parents. The best candidates to adopt are not “perfect people,” but everyday people with real lives full of ups and downs. Adoptive parents don’t have to be of the same race or have the same ethnic background as the child they adopt. They don’t have to own their own home. If you feel you have something to give and want to provide a safe, stable and nurturing environment for a child, you are probably the kind of person who adopts. Not all adoptions are expensive. Adoptions of children in the custody of the state can be at little or no cost.

To find out if adoption is right for you and your family, contact a child placing agency or the Children’s Division in your county. Missouri Baptist Children’s Home Children and Family Ministries, as an affiliate of Missouri Baptist Children’s Home, can help you explore the possibilities of becoming a “forever family” to a child. To find out more about Missouri Baptist Children’s Home call (314) 739-6811 or visit their web site at www.mbch.org.

Robbi Haynes is the Director of Recruitment, Marketing and International Adoptions for Missouri Baptist Children’s Home Children and Family Ministries headquartered in Bridgeton, MO.