D and C,
You guys have provided so much information about Ian and I wanted to write and give you an overview of our family in anticipation of our meeting next Friday night.
First, R and I have been married for over 29 years now. We were high school sweethearts and married our junior year of college. We are both graduates of W in Bowling Green, KY. R has a Bachelor's degree in Biology and a Master's Degree in Education. I have a Bachelor's degree in Broadcast Journalism.
We moved to Georgia almost 13 years ago from Kentucky. We have lived in Forsyth County since moving here. We had anticipated that our stay in Georgia would be fairly brief and then we would be moving on to another corporate job, but we fell in love with Georgia and God certainly had other plans for keeping us here. I should add here that R is an executive sales representative with X pharmaceuticals and I am primarily a stay-at-home mom, with the exception of the post placement casework I do for the adoption agency. R has worked for X for 16 years. R is "on the road" during the day but only has overnight travel once or twice a year for work. R is also a bi-vocational Southern Baptist pastor and in 2009 we planted F Worship Center. In addition to the church, we have a non-profit adoption and orphan care ministry called JH.
We have a 6 bedroom, 4 bath house in Forsyth that we built in 2011. It is just over 3,600 square feet. At the time we built the house, we dedicated it to the Lord and asked Him to fill it as He chose, whether that meant simply an overnight stay for friends or the permanent addition of more children to our family. He has certainly been faithful to our request! Our school-age kids attend M Elementary School which is located 1.2 miles from our home. We hand picked our homesite in order to be in the M school district. It is the smallest of all the elementary schools in Forsyth.
So...now a little about our kids. We have two biological sons, who are now 27 and 23. The oldest, C, is married and lives in Forsyth County as well. He is the Director of X Schools. We are actually a second-generation adoptive family as C and his wife adopted our first grandson in April 2011. We spend time with them two-three times each week. Our second son is D, and he lives in Duluth. He is an accountant for X law firm in downtown Atlanta. Both C and D are graduates of GA College and now both are pursuing their Master's degrees. Our daughter, E, is now 23. We adopted E from Korea in 1990 when she was four months old. E graduates from College and State University last year with a degree in Spanish. She is currently completing an internship at C. She lives in Duluth with D, in the townhouse that he owns there.
Our children at home now are ages 8, 6, 3 and 18 months. All are adopted. N, the 8 year old is in second grade. N was adopted domestically from Florida. He is multi-racial. He plays basketball and football and loves video and computer games. Our older kids call N "the baby whisperer" because he is so amazing with the little ones.
J is our 6 year old adopted from Taiwan. J came home to us at the age of 18 months. As you may have known, J has a rare genetic disease called F Disease. We spend every other week at the Emory where he receives an infusion of a drug that will improve his quality of life and minimize many of the symptoms of F. J is in Kindergarten. We have special arrangements and he receives extra support services from the school because of the number of days he has to miss for his treatments. One of the issues with this disease is that J may eventually lose the ability to sweat, so we have had to consider what activities would be best suited for him. J takes gymnastics on Wednesdays and he loves this and has shown quite a talent for it. He also loves singing, music, and drawing. N and J are very different but they are the best of buddies. I have to say that our boys are very open, loving, and accepting of other children.
X was adopted as a newborn in 2010, and she just turned 3 two weeks ago. She is actually N's biological sister. She is the ultimate girly-girl and enjoys being the "princess" in the household! She takes gymnastics through the City on Fridays. We have a wonderful, open relationship with N and X's birthmother and birthgrandmother and plan to visit with them in Florida over Spring Break. Our kids are beginning to understand that every adoption is unique.
We were contacted and asked to consider S, our youngest, in October of 2011 and brought him home from Taiwan in May, 2012. S was expected to have significant special needs, but the truth is he is perfectly healthy. He suffered oxygen deprivation and had a 15 minute delay of initial cry at birth. He then had brain edema and seizures and was expected to be severely affected. Everyone who reviews his medical chart now says he is a miracle baby. I know the truth is he has a daddy who prayed relentlessly for his healing and God heard that prayer. We have two MRIs showing brain injury and a third that is perfectly normal! Faithful God
I have to say that we weren't looking to adopt when we were contacted about S, nor or we now. But, our goal is to be obedient and responsive to the needs God lays before us and to be used for His purposes. I believe our home is a warm, relaxing and nurting place. As a family, we enjoy just hanging out at home together, going out to eat, and traveling. We took all three of the little ones with us to Taiwan to bring S home and we are planning to return to Taiwan as a family in 2014. This year we are planning a trip to Disney World in November for the entire family to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. As parents, I think R and I are very patient. Parenting in your late 40s is certainly different that parenting in our 20s. Our older kids keep saying "these are not the same people who raised us"! LOL!
Please let me know if you have any specific questions that we can answer for you before Friday.
Blessings,
T
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