When Kara and Jordan Crockett went on a mission trip to Nigeria, they didn't expect to meet a little boy who would steal their hearts; but they did. Now, a year later, 5-year-old Job will trade his Nigerian orphanage for the Crockett's home in Virginia Beach.

"The first time the adoptive father-to-be saw little Job, he said 'He stood out because [the other kids] always want to be in pictures but he would always stand in the corner. I told Kara it was my goal to make that little boy laugh.'"

Laugh he did. And he felt such a connection with the Crocketts that he got up, by himself, to walk from his orphanage and say good-bye on the morning they left for the States. Kara returned eight months later and was greeted so warmly by Job that she knew she and her husband would be adopting him.

The Academy at Swift River is a private boarding school for troubled teens in Western Massachusetts. Visit www.swiftriver.com to learn more about their college preparatory school.

Labels: relationships, connections, Africa

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 0 Comments

Paula and Bryan Blatchford were excited to adopt. Paula had a teenage daughter from her first marriage, and Bryan didn’t have any kids of his own. They were willing to adopt older children, and were soon paired with a brother and sister. But 16 months after the children arrived, a series of problems resulted in them leaving the family.

Each year, roughly 5 per cent of the 600 adoptions from children’s aids societies in Ontario are not completed. With children over the age of 6, that number can be as high as 25 percent.…

Experienced adoption workers say all children put up for adoption, whether given up by their parents or seized from the home, have special needs. Abuse, multiple moves, drug or alcohol addictions and abandonment have left their mark on fragile psyches. [Source: The Toronto Star]

Adopted children, especially older ones, sometimes have trouble bonding with their adoptive parents; often the result of trauma suffered at an early age. Some families can get past issues like this, using counseling or some other form of family therapy.

Labels: abandonment, connections

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 3 Comments