Meet the Henderson Family!
Michael and I married each other later in life. As Christians, we had prayed long and hard about providing a home for a sibling group of kids that might have challenges in finding the right family to care for them. We knew we had the love in our hearts and financial resources to provide a stable, loving home to a sibling group. We planned on adopting two, but life rarely goes as planned, right!? Thus, we ended up with three! Thank goodness. Our lives are so rich and full being parents to Kaylie (age 11), Jordan (age 10), and Elijah (age 5).
We originally decided we wanted to adopt from foster care after Jackie had served as a volunteer camp counselor at Royal Family Kids Camp (Foster Camp) in 2017. She returned feeling really inspired by her experience. We went through the home study process, were approved in December, and shortly thereafter, we submitted our home study for three groups of children that were in the system.
To our amazement and delight, we found out we were selected to be Kaylie, Jordan and Elijah's adoptive family on Jordan's 8th birthday (4/11/18). At the time, Kaylie was 8 and Elijah was 3. Our adoption finalized in June of 2019, and it was without a doubt the happiest day of our lives. We had a memorable ceremony in court in Clackamas County, surrounded by our extended family.
Kaylie is the oldest. She is one of the kindest and most loving children we have ever known. Kaylie longs to be the next "American Idol" so keep watching for her debut someday!
Jordan is very smart! Math is his passion, and he is also an incredible builder and creator with Legos. He can build just about anything you challenge him with.
Elijah is a bright, sensitive soul. He has a tender heart, but also has impeccable and hilarious comic timing. He cracks everyone up with his keen sense of humor.
Our trio was in the foster care system for 3 years before they were placed with us. After placement, we went through some struggles involving birth parent parental rights. It was a scary time for us. The kids had been in care for so long, and they just wanted to be “Hendersons” so badly! They longed to have the security of knowing that we were going to be their family, forever. Fortunately, we were able to resolve it and move forward.
Some days are good, and some days not so good. We would like our leaders in Congress to know that adoption can be tough for adoptive parents too. We have three kiddos and would love it if there were more mental health resources easily available for them, as well as a means to be able to ensure the children could attend college or technical school. Incorporating them into our family so late in life – let alone that there are three – makes it hard to save enough money to be able to amply support their education after high school. The pandemic and virtual homeschooling has also added an extra layer of challenge to the already rigorous job of parenting, but we have so much love in our hearts for our kids!
As parents, we feel strongly that becoming adoptive parents has made our lives complete. We can't remember life without our kids. Kaylie, herself, remarks "I'm thankful for being adopted because my birth mom did the right thing because she couldn't take care of us." She wants people to know “it is fun and exciting, and you should pick the kids you want.” Jordan, too, stresses that prospective adoptive parents should know that “if they do adopt some kids, it will be fun!”
In addition, Jordan exclaims that adoption "was the best thing that happened to me ever in my life, and I really like it. I've had a good time, and I love my adoptive family and everyone in it!"
Well, how can you beat that?
