Meet the Poehler Family!
During the summer of 2011, I felt I was ready to become a mom. I would be an older mom, but I hoped a wiser one. After what felt like a lifetime working on my career in sales and marketing, I was planning to start my own business as a marketing consultant. I had just bought a condo.
I contacted the Lawrence area DCF office. In what felt like fate, there were a handful of MAPP classes that worked for me. My DCF worker came to my house and did the inspection. I filled out the forms.
I spent so much time going through MARE’s website to see what children were waiting for a mom. I originally was looking to adopt a toddler because I was older.
In December of 2011, all was finalized, and I was just waiting to be matched with the right child.
In March and April of 2012, I start to get some calls about toddlers, but they never went any further. In June, however, I received a call from my DCF worker about a baby, only a few days old, at the local hospital’s Special Care Unit. My heart raced; was this really happening? I said, “Yes!”
Within a few days, I was given access to Special Care so I could visit this little one often. He was two months premature, weighed a little more than four pounds, and was hooked up to monitors and a feeding tube. None of that mattered; I couldn’t wait to hold him. The nurses were amazing, teaching me everything I needed to know.
Within a couple of weeks, the baby came home with me. After some ups and downs about kinship placements that would eventually fall through, this sweet boy had his goal changed to pre-adoption. He became legally freed for adoption right before Christmas 2012. This was definitely a Christmas miracle.
When Rhys was one year and two months old, we stood in front of the family court judge, and she pronounced him “forever and irrevocably” my son. I am not ashamed to tell you I cried (and could hear the sniffles from my family members who had made the two-hour trek to see this amazing event.)
Being a first-time mom to a baby born prematurely and with challenges was one of the most difficult and rewarding things I have ever done. Rhys and I have had our bumps. His ADHD and anxiety sometimes manifest into aggression. We have had heartbreaking experiences with daycare and pre-school. But through years of therapy, an effective school IEP, and other factors like a small classroom, he is maturing by leaps and bounds. He is now in 4th grade, and so smart it amazes me. Rhys does have occasional anxiety attacks, and he will need surgery soon for his congenital nystagmus, a visual impairment.
I have recently decided to adopt again. We have been fostering for a year and we have loved every baby who has come into our home. Rhys is an amazing brother.
My love for Rhys and for the child we will soon welcome into our family will always envelop and protect them.
