Star of the Month: December

 

Meeting Our December Stars of the Month: The Santos Family

Explain the process of adopting your child.

Sara was adopted by our family two years ago. My sister had a child that she wasn’t able to take care of and my family decided to go through the adoption process. The youngest child before Sara was 16 years old and my parents were definitely worried about raising another grandchild. Sara was born in California and we lived in Colorado so we had to work with California and go through an expedited process for Sara. My parents took kinship classes and had their home study. Sara came to live with us after the kinship classes were finished and the caseworker saw that we were a fit family for her. She was only three months but she had been living with a foster family and they were much attached. The caseworker came to our home for a year and we finally became her adopted family. Right now she is about two and a half years old. We love her very much and couldn’t really see our lives without her.

What was the hardest part of the process?

The hardest part was that my sister had another child and had decided to give up that child. My family was sad that we haven’t been able to contact her and tell her that we have Sara.

What is your favorite memory from the process?

My favorite memory is meeting her and seeing her for the first time. I think the second favorite was a mixture of fear and happiness. My mom and I went to California to pick her up and when we came back we were on different flights. My flight was non-stop and we decided that I should take the baby with me on the plane. Sara was amazing, she didn’t cry and slept the whole time. She really changed our lives for the better when she came to our home.

Was your child in foster care before you adopted them?
Yes, Sara was with a wonderful foster family before we brought her to our home. They wanted to adopt Sara until they found out that we were planning on adopting her. It was difficult to see how much the family wanted to be the adoptive family. However, we felt that Sara belonged with our family and that we could answer her questions when she got older.

Have you or do you plan to talk to your child about the adoption? If so, when?

We hope to talk to her about it when she can talk back to us and ask her questions. When we had Juan he was four and he understood that he wasn’t going to be with his mother anymore. We still had to answer questions, but this is different so we hope to speak to her when she is older.

Are there any media (books, movies, etc) related to adoption that you use for either you or your child?

No not yet, I don’t think Sara would understand unless Elmo was on T.V. J

Are/were there any support groups (or something similar) that you are a part of?

The kinship class was our support group because we were able to talk about our experiences and ask questions about anything we were worried about. My parents have also been to meetings for grandparents who are raising grandchildren.

What do you do to incorporate your child's culture into their life?

Well, that is the easy part for us. Sara is Hispanic and she is learning both languages because we know them in our home. We plan to show her respect for her culture and the language but respect for the American culture as well.