22nd October 2021
Marie and Martin began their adoption journey 8 years ago and are adoptive parents to siblings, now aged 15 and 12. Marie shares their story:
“Initially, we thought about adopting one child but as I was adopted as an only child, we made the decision to adopt siblings together. Our children were 7 and 4 when they came to live with us. If we hadn’t adopted our daughter we feel she might not have had the same chance to be adopted because she was older. They have a lot of shared experiences and preserving their identity is very important.
Our children had different parenting experiences in their earlier years and have different needs, with our son having been in care earlier than our daughter. She missed her brother a lot when they were separated and is still very protective over him. It took a number of years for her to let go of that feeling of caring responsibility, which was difficult for her.
Our social worker made the adoption process as unobtrusive as possible and was understanding and kept us updated throughout the whole process. We understood why it had to be detailed as we would be entrusted with children who had difficult early life experiences – it was well worth it.
The support of both our social worker and our family has been amazing. Our family was 100% behind us throughout the process and really embraced the children from the beginning. Our love for them has grown strongly over time and although the early years were not all plain sailing, they are really well settled now.
We have been very open with our children about their adoption, they have always known. We enjoy going camping together, going out for dinner, board game nights and walking the dog – just normal day-to-day family activities.”
*stock image used