20th October 2021
Clodagh and Brendan began their adoption journey almost 12 years ago and are adoptive parents to siblings, who came to live with them aged 2 and 1.
“We were married for around 6 years when we decided to go down the adoption route following unsuccessful IVF treatment. We went to an adoption information session and thought, yes, we can do this,” said Clodagh.
“We talked about wanting a big family but as time went on we knew this was less likely and thought we’d love 2 or 3 children. It was a no brainer for us to take siblings. We just couldn’t have had one without the other. They are a complete unit, two pieces of a jigsaw. We couldn’t have split them up,” she added.
“The process wasn’t quick, it did take a few years from we decided we wanted to adopt until the children were legally ours but it was all worth it. We loved them instantly,” said Clodagh. “We first met the children at their foster carer’s house and our lasting memory is them looking out the window at us waving as we walked down the path. When the door opened we were overwhelmed by two wee children who launched themselves at us at about 400 miles an hour!” she laughed.
“We were really lucky from Day 1 because our social worker was so kind to us. She is still with us and has been an incredible support throughout our journey.
We remember clearly the Friday evening the social worker came to talk to us about a brother and sister who needed adoption. We took the weekend to think about it and decided these could be our children. The social worker then came and shared photos of the children with us. They were just beautiful and we took them home a few weeks later.
The children have been with for over 8 years and are now 10 and 9 years old. They are amazing kids. Our children are normal, happy kids who love quads, bikes, football, drama, and computer games. Both of them are incredibly social, they just love the outdoors and really enjoy their beach holidays in Donegal. It feels like they’ve always been here with us. They are part of our family and have been welcomed with open arms by all our family and friends.
They know they are adopted and wear it like a badge of honour. They will often ask; ‘Mummy, tell us the story about the time you and daddy first saw us’. We are super proud of both of them,” said Clodagh.