[claschober]

Congratulations to both hdallas and tudu as you move one step closer on your adoption journey! I am excited to "talk" with more ppl who have or are adding to their family via a sibling group like we are.

As for adding more children to our family, my dh and I definetly want more kids. My oldest boy has some issues where he needs to be the oldest boy, so we are thinking about maybe an older girl or sticking with younger kids.

About the thread started on a pic parade...if TPR has occured, however we have not finalized are we allowed to post pics of our kids? I would love to brag about my boys and show off how cute they are, but I am not sure if I am allowed to post their pic yet.

Take care!

[jennyg1982]

In Florida you are allowed to post pics if they have been TPR'd. Not sure if that is true everywhere. The only way I know that is, our county was doing a photo shoot to promote Adoption and came and took pictures of my kids that had been TPR'd. But not the ones who were still being fostered. I would love to post pics but have no idea how to do it? Can anybody tell me how?

FH- You asked how I do it? Do you mean how we adopted so many kids? Or how we care for them all? I am a stay at home Mom and my husband only works 2 days a week. So that helps alot with the caring for them all! Thanks! Jenny

[Roon63]

Jenny, I would love to hear the story to how you were able to adopt so many! I collect these for conversations with dear hubby! and by the way, this lady on the forums has 13, you know I don't want 13, but wouldn't 2 more be good? lol
I am seeing our SW saturday(candlelite for a friend with sibling set), I am gonna ask her about pics here in NewMex.

[sgtmax]

Hello
Yes my Hubby is back from the Deployment. I realised I also made a mistake on the date of placement, the kids were placed with us in Dec 2004 not 2005. My husband has been back since New Years eve. He left Jan 2005. We are just waiting on paperwork right now.

[hdallas]

I would love to read the stories
about the woman who had adopted 13 children and one woman who is about to adopt 6.

[jennyg1982]

Here's our story in a nutshell: My husband and I began "informal" fostering over 20 years ago. We had kind of a "open door" policy and took in over 25 kids in that time period. We adopted 4 out of that 25. Then we became foster parents with the State in 2004. We have had over 15 kids with the State and have adopted 6. We are awaiting the final judgement on a appeal for our last sibling group of 3 so we can adopt them. That will bring our grand total to 13 adopted and 1 foster! So at the moment I have 14 kids but the goal for our foster baby is reunifcation for now. Our first set of adopted kids are now adults ages: 19, 21, 24, 26. And our newly adopted kids are ages: 17, 15, 13, 10 and 9 year old twins. And the last sibling group are ages: 10, 7 and 4. Our little foster baby is 20 months. Our house is never dull! But I would not have it any other way. If you want to know more, ask away! Jenny

[hdallas]

jennyg1982 - how do you do it?

That is awesome. Give us some helpful hints!!
Like organizational skills and such......... Have you
seen "Cheaper by the dozen 1 and 2) (the movies with steve martin---great flicks!!!!!!!!!!) can you relate
or what?
How are the older kids doing with their adulthood and adjustments? (Did you have special need children).
Can't wait to hear more. Thank you ---you are a blessing!

[jennyg1982]

Hey Hdallas,
We are a very organized family. Well sometimes. We have a Master Planner that EVERYTHING gets written in. This helps us gets everything done and makes sure that no appointments are forgotten. We have 2 kids with CF and 6 kids with ADHD so we have alot of appointments. We also have a schedule that usually works. The kids get up at 7:00 and we eat breakfast together and the kids get ready for school. We homeschool so they just have to go up stairs to our "school room" we work on school until lunch. I usually cook lunch for everyone and we clean up and finish school work. The kids usually help me fix dinner and we eat together every night. Then it is time for baths, story time and cuddles and everyone in bed. The little kids go to bed by 7:30 and the middle kids to bed by 8:30 then the teenagers to bed by 10:30 or 11:00. Everyone helps with chores and each child has their assigned chores each day and evening. We shop alot at the wholesale club and WalMart. We do not eat out alot. We eat breakfast, lunch and dinner at home. We go to the library alot and the park. We do have annual passes to Bush Gardens, Sea World and a Water Park. That is great for entertaining the kids over the summer.
We have adopted many children with different disablilties and special needs. 2 have CF, 6 have ADHD and 1 has FAE. In addition several of our kids have mental limitations. Out of all our kids, 4 are now adults. 3 live on their own. The other one lives in our garage apartment on our property. He will never be able to live on his own because of his mental limitations. All of them are very well adjusted and we still see them often. 3 of them live nearby so we see them daily. Our daughter lives about 1 hour away so we see her less often. Over all our adoption and foster care experience has been very postive. Our lives are very busy but we love it that way!
Jenny

[jennyg1982]

Forgot to mentain we have seen both Cheaper by the dozen movies. My husband and I went out on a "date" night and went and saw the latest one! We also saw the remake of "yours, mine and ours" We really could relate! Only our house is not so crazy! Usually the first thing people say when they come into our house is "I can not believe you have 10 kids in this house" It is usually not too noisy. Unless the teenagers are playing their guitars and drums! We live in a very old Colonial House and the rooms are very large so the kids are here it is just well insulated!
Jenny

[la vida loca]

I'm in the waiting stage, hoping to fost-adopt a sibling group of two girls between the ages of five and ten. The room is ready to go (let's just say it's the land of Barbie and I have what may be the world's best dress-up box). I'm using my waiting time to read books on attachment which were recommended to me by some of the very helpful people in this forum!

[Canadamom92]

Well, we heard yesterday that a worker representing a sib group we were considering called our worker for more info about us. We're not sure yet. She's sending more information about them and another sib group in her care to our worker.

DH is not very interested at this point - he thinks they're more than we can handle. I disagree. I'm going to wait to make my case until after we read their info, though. Our sw is worried that I haven't thought things through. I get so frustrated when he puts on the brakes - I usually do most of the care of children and chores, so I don't know what his big hesitation is.

Oh, well. We'll have to wait and see. I'm finding that few sw's are considering us for smaller numbers of kids (1-2) because we already have three - there are so many applicants for 1-2 children that they can pick and choose the families with fewer kids in the home where there is a stay-at-home parent. We do, however, get the attention of the sw's representing larger sib groups.

[bandareed]

This is a fun thread! I my DD is one of seven. The 5 with TPR are adopted in 4 different homes...three of us families keep in touch. Looks like the last two (two year old twin girls) may be removed soon. I'm hoping desperatly to get them! My daughter would love it. She's never even seen them before(except in pics)! I've seen them 3 times and fell in love. They're wild ones though! lol

[Canadamom92]

Does anyone else have their social worker really trying to discourage them from adopting a larger sib group? Ours can't imagine wanting so many children and has been actively bringing up reasons why she thinks we should reconsider (ie. housework load, not having "quality time" for the other kids, etc). She really seems to think that we shouldn't want such a big family, and that we're considering it due to charitable impulses, rather than just wanting a large family. I'm finding that a lot of people are reacting to it that way.

I guess it comes from the current trend for small families. People tend to feel that their family is complete with one or two children, and have trouble understanding why other people might not feel the same way about their own families. When they start asking why we'd want so many kids, I sometimes have to bite my tongue to avoid saying "why would you want so few/no kids?". I'd never say it, but it's an equally silly thing to say.

I always dreamed of having a big family - having only one or two kids was never my intention. When I was a teen, I wanted ten kids. At this point I'd settle for eight.

P.S. It's so quiet here lately...

[hotspice58]

Roon-no TV?!?!?! Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hotspice58]

I'm currently adopting 2 brothers; I had one at 6. He was TPR'd in October/2005. His brother was in a group home until 6 weeks ago. He was TPR'd at the same time but his adoption will be later this year. They have 3 other siblings in GA (I'm in NY); we're planning to go there this summer. I'm looking to adopt another sibling group in foster care. To Jenny with 13: Wow!!!