52. Legally moms to a teenager!

Hello! Mama S here. In a little more than 5 months Mama A and I will legally be Moms to our beautiful teenage little lady! We never thought that we would be adopting a teenager, but we couldn’t imagine our future without her in it.

Our story with little lady started around 2 years ago. Mama A and I were newly licensed with our new agency and we were figuring out what ages of children we were looking to take in. We were originally waiting for a medically fragile infant. Our worker calls and says that this sweet 14-year-old needs a place to go for a school break, she knew that we were not technically open to teenagers, but perhaps we would say yes. We talked it over and she came to stay with us for a bit.

We fell into adoration instantly. She was a teenager, absolutely, but she was such a great kid and we loved having her around. She came to stay with us over school breaks and over a summer. We loved having her with us and she enjoyed her time in our home. She was not destined to live with us right away, even though it was presented as an option about a year ago.

Fast forward to a few months ago. I get a text that she is in need of a place to move to. I panicked, Mama A responded right away with a resounding yes. One of the many reasons why I love that woman with all my heart. Within 2 days she was in our living room with a sad smile.

Both of our worlds were turned upside down that day. She was forced to move to a new town and we had to learn to shift our lives to accommodate a teenager living with us permanently.

We asked her right away if she wanted to be adopted. She is post TPR (terminated parental rights) and we knew that she would need to live with us for 6 months before we could legally adopt but we wanted to start that process right away if she was OK with it. She was very excited that day and has been more excited as plans move forward.

If you would have asked any of us if we would be adopting a teenager in 2019 we would have laughed at you. Now, we couldn’t imagine our lives any other way. Going forward I will blog about the process of getting approved for an adoption. It is largely like the process of getting approved to be a foster parent, but it has been a few years since we went through that process so we may as well review.

If you see Mama A and I alone, celebrate with us. High fives, hugs, giant smiles are all in order. If you see P or little lady, play it cool. P is extremely jealous of little lady’s adoption and little lady just wants to not have foster/adoptive labels. She is our daughter and that is how we will refer to her and how we would like all of you to refer to her as well.

Any questions, please feel free to message us privately. Please do not ask any questions when the girls are present.

Thank you all- have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Mama S