I get all kinds of news articles about foster care, special needs adoption and various other things. I see articles about foster parents that are getting kudos in their town because they adopted a sibling group, or a medically fragile child, or some other thing. I think to myself “I know lots of parents like that” but they never appear on a news link or receive any praise. So I want to profile some of the parents that I admire.

I could start with one of the bloggers on here but that seems rather redundant. You are already reading the blogs and know so much about these people, and I wouldn’t want to play favorites by picking one blogger over another.

My friend, Elaine, is an awesome mom. We met a few years ago at an attachment disorder seminar that we were both attending. We chatted briefly, but didn’t have much contact after that. A couple of years ago, I was contacted about an adoption that was disrupting after just a few months. The little girl was from Russia, had been in the country such a short amount of time that she wasn’t even speaking English yet. My husband and I thought of taking this little girl, but were financially restricted from doing it.

I then put out an “alert” to everyone that I knew in the adoption and attachment areas to see if they knew of anyone who might be interested. Elaine e-mailed me back within five minutes. She flew out to meet this little girl and brought her home a few weeks later. I met them at the airport the day they came home. It was incredible because I saw signs of attachment already. When I went to say high to the little girl, she stuck close to Elaine. When her new dad (who had not met her yet) introduced himself and said that he was her father (in Russian) and called her his little princess (in Russian) she stuck close to mom. My heart just about burst from happiness.

They settled in, and we have maintained contact ever since. A little less than a year later I received another e-mail from Elaine telling me that they were taking a little boy whose adoption was disrupting. He is also Russian. I was thrilled for this little boy because I knew how well the family was doing. He came home to join his five other siblings.

Oh, I forgot to mention that there were other children in the house? Yes, Elaine has a kinship placement of a boy, and a sibling group of three African American girls.

After this little guy came home, Elaine said they were done, so imagine my surprise when a few months ago, Elaine told me that they were taking a little girl who was disrupting from her adoption, and she’s Russian as well. This little one is so adorable that you can’t help but smile when you see her. I want to scoop her up and bring her home. Elaine again insisted that they were done.

When the next call came, I wasn’t shocked to hear of another child coming from a disruption, into their home. Except this was a fourteen year old girl from India. That just about made me fall off my chair.

I got to meet all of the kids this past summer when I was feeling particularly stressed and needed some time to cool off. Elaine welcomed Hannah into their home for the day. This family is doing well. That’s not to say that there aren’t problems, but they do a very good job of handling them.

I am proud to call Elaine my friend and hope that these children know how blessed they are to have a mother like her.

Elaine does read my blog, but doesn’t know I am writing about her. Give her a high five in the comments section.

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