Adopting a second child?
I’ve seen several posts about having another biological child afterone has been diagnosed with ASD. Despite our strong desire to getpregnant again, we have come to the decision that adoption would be asafer option for us. I’m just wondering if any other parents out therehave thought about or tried to adopt…do agencies shy away fromgranting adoptions to families with special needs kids? We really wantanother child, but the risks of another pregnancy are just too highfor us.
This post tagged as: asd
Earl Stasik said,
Wrote on December 8, 2006 @ 5:06 pm
We adopted our younger son and would adopt again if we choose to haveanother child. Our oldest child is biological. The first poster isright, you don’t ever really know what challenges a child will have.But sometimes you know biological children aren’t for you. My youngestson also has challenges. Actually his birth mother used crack andsometimes alcohol when she was pregnant. We knew this when we adoptedhim and were ok with a child who may have serious special needs. Wefelt we were equipped to handle such a situation better than the averagefamily based on our having already done that. And I think we did. Wesaw early signs of problems (which have been much smaller than with ourolder son) and been aggressive with therapy. He is a healthy, happy 3year old who is now developing normally after some therapy. But noproblems so to speak. We knew we couldn’t do autism again, and I justcouldn’t handle another difficult pregnancy after 2 (one child didn’tlive). I would say adoption was the best way to build our family and wewould love to have one more when our two get a little older and a littlemore independent.
Chester Krummel said,
Wrote on December 10, 2006 @ 12:32 am
Gosh I hope I do not offend too… so first let me say, the agencies look atwhat kind of home you can provide, they will see a stable home who goes theextra mile for their special needs child. You will look appealing I am sure! Andthere are plently of kids who need adopted!
Having said that, when I got pregnant, already having a 7 y/o autistic son –Isaw it as a chance to “do things right” this time… (Poor Gavin, someday I hopeI can joke with him, and that he will understand, when I joke with him andapologize to him for being my “test” child
But I made sure to eat organic when PG (and that is what Liam eats now, asmuch as possible), I avoided fish and I did not vaccinate Liam either. I go the extra mile to keep toxins away from my youngest
Because I do believe that Liam is more likely to develope “Autism” from toxicexposures just like his brother did.
I have done this and Liam is a very bright little boy. He’s 15 months old andwe are checking off skills on the developmental charts for 18-21 month old kids.