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Adoption Story CAF 8/9

Adoption Story CAF Story CAF Adoption CAF Part 8 Part 8/9 CAF Adoption Story Mostly Old Game Inspirtation Mine Warning: Teen Pregnancy

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#1 Puppylover12397

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Posted 29 January 2016 - 05:57 PM

Adoption Story CAF 8/9

 

Part 1 ~ Part 2 ~ Part 3 ~ Part 4 ~ Part 5 ~ Part 6 ~ Part 7

 

It's been nine years since you adopted your last children and a lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same - since these past nine years you've opened not just one, but two more off shoots of your original business, [name] and [name], and [LI] has retired from their own job to help you run the business and you both enjoy working together and it helps fulfill another part of your relationship that you had never done before. Plus with a lot of things going so well, you've enjoyed seeing your kids grow up and become more of themselves.

 

However, growing up at times comes with certain difficulties and lately some of the children have been having a few problems with their behavior and school.

(Put your children and their potential problems here, please share stories!)

 

With all of this happening at once, you and [LI] have decided to have the kids switch out of their schools into a private one, away from any previous bad influence or place hat might be giving your kids trouble,  and hope that perhaps a change of pace will help the children to settle down and become a bit happier. Once the switch happens and the children have started school again, we notice that the children's problems are [roll].

(How have they improved/solved the problem) and/or (If having a baby - See chart for grandchildren's names and looks)

 

While we weren't expecting grandchildren so early, we love the newest addition to the family.

 

Please list your family - Furry members included!

 

 

Dice.

 

The Potential Problems: (Roll for each child)
1. No Problem
2. Grades are falling/failing
3. Starting Fights
4.No Problem
5. Is/Gotten someone Pregnant (Only if over 14, You Choose if younger)
6. No Problem
7. No Problem
8. Grades are falling/failing
9. No Problem
10. Attitude Problem

11. Is/Gotten someone Pregnant (Only if over 14, You Choose if younger)

12. No Problem

 

Are the children's problems better: (Roll for each Child)
1. A New Issue (You Choose)
2.  No
3. Yes
4. Improving
5. No
6. Yes

(If Pregnant) Child Has A:
1. A Girl
2. B/G Twins
3. A Boy
4. G/G Twins
5. Your Choice
6. B/B Twins

7. Your Choice

8. Triplets - Gender UTY

 

Grandchildren Names:

Boy First & Middle

Girl First & Middle

 

Surname: Either hyphenate your children and their bf/gfs' surname or use just your child depending on story circumstance.

 

Hair Color:

1. Red

2. Blonde

3. Blonde

4. Black

5. Brown

6. Your Choice

 

Eye Color:

1. Blue

2.  Green

3. Blue

4. Hazel

5. Brown

6. Your Choice



#2 keladry12

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Posted 01 February 2016 - 01:13 AM

It's been nine years since you adopted your last children and a lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same - since these past nine years you've opened not just one, but two more off shoots of your original business, Electric Heart, an improvement upon the pacemaker, and a writing project about human biological medical devices, and Ophelia has retired from their own job to concentrate on writing as well.  You both enjoy working together and it helps fulfill another part of your relationship that you had never done before. Plus with a lot of things going so well, you've enjoyed seeing your kids grow up and become more of themselves.

 

However, growing up at times comes with certain difficulties and lately some of the children have been having a few problems with their behavior and school.

 

Axel and his girlfriend Saga Mei Berstrom were very surprised when Saga got pregnant their junior year of college.  As they enter their senior year, Saga and Axel have managed to adjust to their new life with their darling daughter Freya Morgana Seeske.  She has pale blond hair like her mother and bright hazel eyes.  Axel and Saga got married the summer after their junior year, shortly after learning of the pregnancy. 

 

Harper, although very bright and creative, has not been pushing herself at all.  Instead, she's been very lazy with a poor attitude towards school work or any sort of practice.  Even though she's naturally talented at many things, she never strives to get better.  Ophelia hopes that with a more struggling work load she may rise to the occasion. 

 

Astrid, on the other hand, has been pushing herself too hard.  She sees any relaxation as laziness, which is so strange as her twin and best friend Wren is so care-free and thoughtful.  This attitude is affecting her sleep patterns and making her muscles too tense!  Even though her school work is exceptional and she achieves so much, it's at the expense of her health.  You need to find a way to help her learn how to take time for herself. 

 

With all of this happening at once, you and Ophelia have decided to have the kids switch out of their schools into a private one, away from any previous bad influence or place that might be giving your kids trouble,  and hope that perhaps a change of pace will help the children to settle down and become a bit happier. Once the switch happens and the children have started school again, two years later, we notice that the children's problems are changing.
 

While Axel has made a nice life for himself with Saga and Freya, his twin brother Luca now has a daughter!  With striking black hair and blue eyes, Eirowen Juniper Seeske shook up Luca into a new direction.  While Eirowen's mother Elodie Winter Gerhardt decided she couldn't care for a child at this point, Luca decided that he wanted to step up and provide for his daughter.  He's really loved being able to care for a baby.

 

Haven got pregnant at the same time as Elodie, but she was only 16 when her brown hair and brown eyed son Solomon Casper Seeske-Hornik was born.  Her boyfriend, brown hair and blue-eyed Julius Orion Hornik has continued to support Haven, although they are very young.  You and Ophelia have been caring for your grandchild while Haven continues to attend school, but he will know that Haven is his mother, and Haven talks to him every day.

 

Astrid has continued to work on her tendency to work herself to exhaustion.  While she has begun to channel her energy in other ways besides school work, she still isn't satisfied with relaxing and has trouble allowing herself to take time to play.  Recently, she's really enjoyed working with a therapist on some behavior modifications to address some obsessive tendencies.  

 

While we weren't expecting grandchildren so early, we love the newest addition to the family.

 

Please list your family - Furry members included!

 

Seeske Family:

DW: Anwen Elspeth

DW: Ophelia Violet

 

DD: Hazel Amity Seeske (25)

DS/DS: Axel Yorick Seeske/Luca Elisha Seeske (23)

DD: Eden Opal Seeske (20) 

DS: Evander Emmett Seeske (19)

DD: Phoebe Branwen Iverson-Seeske (18)

DD: Haven Lavender Seeske (16)

DD: Harper Zada Iverson-Seeske (15)

DD/DD:  Astrid Rue/Wren Constanza Seeske (11)

cat: Tesseract

 

 

Axel Yorick Seeske

Saga Mei Bergstrom

DD: Freya Morgana Seeske (2)

 

Luca Elisha Seeske

DD: Eirowen Juniper Seeske (nb)

 

 

 

Seelen Family:

DH: Caleb Ezekiel

DW: Harriet Sylvia

 

DD: Evangeline Cora

DD/DS: Clementine Edith/Amos Judah

DD: Cecilia Beatrice

DD: Amity Flora

DD: Matilda Mae

DS/DD/DS: Jasper Atticus/Cordelia Maude/Felix Josiah

DD: Ophelia Violet

 

 

The Wexler Family

 

DW: Evangeline Cora Wexler

DH: Silas Otto Wexler

 

DS: Ezra Lucas Wexler

DD: Susannah Charlotte Wexler

DS: Levi Colin Wexler

DS: Jonah Aidan Wexler

DD: Eve Juliana Wexler

 

 

The Seelen-Mendoza Family

 

DW: Clementine Edith Seelen-Mendoza

DH: August Frederick Seelen-Mendoza

 

DD: Rose Gemma Seelen-Mendoza

DS/DS: Forrest Hugh Seelen-Mendoza/Walker Isaiah Seelen-Mendoza

 

 

The Seelen Family

DH: Amos Judah Seelen

DW: Lydia Cora Sarkozi

 

DS:Owen Elias Seelen

DS/DS: Liam Isaac Seelen/Milo Jonas Seelen

DD: Alice Maya Seelen

DD: Fiona Lucy Seelen

DS: Finn Asher Seelen

 

The Lennox Family

DW: Cecilia Beatrice Lennox

DH: Phineas Walter Lennox

 

DS: Orson Reed Lennox

DD: Audrey Margaret Lennox

DD: Carolina Paige Lennox

DS/DS: Simon Jack Lennox/Julian Spencer Lennox

DD: Francesca Madeleine Lennox

DD: Eleanor Kate Lennox

DS: Alistair Eli Lennox

DD:Miranda Eva Lennox

 

 

The Matos Family

DW: Amity Flora Seelen

DH: Arthur Montgomery Matos

 

DD: Felicity Anna Matos

DS: Harrison Quinn Matos

DD: Willa Sophia Matos

DS: Henry Patrick Matos

DD: Arden Hope Matos

DS/DS/DS: Sawyer Luke Matos/Leo Nathan Matos/Noah Sebastian Matos

 

The Panlen Family

DW: Matilda Mae Seelen

DH: Emmett Oscar Pandev

 

DD/DD: Nora Eliza Panlen/Juliet Isabel Panlen

DD: Olivia Tess Panlen

DS: Miles Theo Panlen

DS: Elijah Lewis Panlen

 

The Seelen Family

DH: Jasper Atticus Seelen

DW: Iris Louisa Baumgartner

 

DS: Oliver Hugh Seelen

DS: Graham Anderson Seelen

DD: Josephine India Seelen

DS/DS: Dominic Christian Seelen/Cole Duncan Seelen

DD: Helena Amelia Seelen

 

The Bowen Family

DW: Cordelia Maude Bowen

DH: Asa Lionel Bowen

 

DD/DD: Clara Dorothea Bowen/Caroline Julia Bowen

DS: Andrew Tobias Bowen

DD: Celia Daisy Bowen

 

The Seelen Family

 

DH: Felix Josiah Seelen

DW: Pearl Eloise Mueller

 

DD:Ella Grace Seelen

DS: Caleb Quentin Seelen

DS/DS: Nathaniel Gregory/Gabriel Nicholas

 

 

-----------------------

 

Your name is Anwen Elspeth Raske, you have red hair and blue eyes and you're 20 years old. You're a student at Princeton University and you're pursuing a major in Biology. Ever since you've come to college, you've always been focused on your studies, you've worked very hard to get into Princeton and need to maintain a certain GPA to continue getting your scholarship money to enable you to continue.

 

However, today is the last of your day second year of undergrad and you've just taken your final exam, you're thrilled, and feel like you've passed all your classes with flying colors and you could not be more ecstatic. All you want to do now is sleep, maybe watch some netflix, but your roommate, Leslie Peyton Iverson,  insists you accompany her to the party to make sure she gets home safe since she plans on drinking. You loathe the idea, but she did help you out studying for your final in English. So, you accompany her to the party and watch her have a good time and hang out on the outskirts of the party.

 

Suddenly, a girl comes up to you. You dismiss her at first, but she has a witty t-shirt about the nature of time which kind of catches your interest. She's got brown hair and hazel eyes and introduces themselves as Ophelia Violet Seelen; they're 19 years old. You start talking to Ophelia and find out about them, they're apparently legacies of the university, went to prep schools their whole life, have traveled the world with their bourgeois family and while that would usually make you feel a bit of a chip on your shoulder, for some reason, it doesn't with Ophelia. You find them charming. You also find out that Ophelia is majoring in Philosophy and the way they speak about their major so passionately entices you. You talk for hours before your roommate stumbles over. Realizing you need to get her home, but not wanting the conversation with Ophelia to end so you exchange numbers and promise to call them later. You leave with your roommate and head back to your dorm, feeling much happier than when you arrived at the party.

 

-------------------------

 

It's been ten years since the night of the party and you honestly cannot help but to look back fondly on it. It's the first night you met Ophelia, who has now become your wife.  You've both graduated from not only your undergrad programs, but from your respective graduate programs and are each working in your dream jobs - Biological Engineering instrument development and assistant professor researching Nietsche.  You and Ophelia could not be happier right now. However, there does seem to be something missing. The pitter-patter of little feet. So, you and Ophelia decide to start trying for a family, you spend three years trying and failing to get pregnant with the help of donor sperm, but nothing happens. No pregnancy.

 

You see a fertility doctor who unfortunately informs you that between the two of you there is a previously undiagnosed case of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Endometriosis between you. The chance of you two having a biological child together is next to near impossible. The first thought of it stuns you both, you go home with that knowledge and both discuss some options, but you mostly grieve your loss. Both you and Ophelia have always wanted a big family, you as an only child and then Ophelia comes from a big family with a slew of brothers and sisters.
 

It takes you five months to finally broach the subject of what you two want to do next, stay childless or look into adoption. It's an easy discussion between us and we decide we want to look into adoption. The first thing we decide is we want to look into both international adoption and into domestic adoption. It takes us some time to find an agency to work with and then to get our home looked into and approved for viability. It's a longer process then expected, but a year later you've been set up by the agency and made an adoption book and just hoped that you would be matched with someone; then one day you were.

 

Your case worker informs you that you've been chosen by a young teen, Emma Sophia Capella, who has fallen pregnant. She wants the adoption to be closed. While you feel sorry for the girl, an excitement does well inside of your chest. You and Ophelia want this, you want to be parents. You meet with Emma Sophia and she comes to your house. You all talk and in the end, you sign the papers. You agree to help pay for the cost of her pregnancy from now on, from making sure her medical bills are paid, new maternity clothes are purchased and help her with getting good healthy food. Other than that there is minimal contact which works well for all parties. 

 

We find out at the six month mark that Emma Sophia is expecting a girl. Either sex would have been okay, but you and Ophelia are just so thrilled. The first thing you both do is go to half a dozen baby stores and purchase all the things you have always wanted to buy. You spend hours after, well into the night and wee hours of the morning setting up a nursery. It looks so beautiful and you honestly cry. You never thought that first night after seeing the infertility doctor you would ever get to set up a nursery.  There ends up being a nautical theme, although the favorite piece is the rocking chair 3.

 

The rest of the pregnancy goes by so fast, I work through the whole situation by working extra hours and then well, it happens.  Emma Sophia goes into labor. It's a quick one and we're there the whole time in the waiting room. Your little one is born perfect with black hair and blue eyes weighing in at 7 pounds and 9 ounces and 23 inches long.  Emma Sophia signs away her rights without ever seeing her. You feel incredible when you look down and just know Hazel Amity Seeske is coming home with you. Where they belong and you and Ophelia feel such joy as you strap them into their car seat to take Hazel home.

 

It has been a year since you welcomed Hazel into your family and both you and Ophelia love being parents, while at times its very hard considering you both work demanding jobs and with you having been promoted up a position to the Head of Medical Instrument Development in your company, but thanks to help from your mother, Helen Irene Raske, you know Hazel is always in good hands even if you and Ophelia are busy with work.

 

However, later that week you, Ophelia and Hazel attend her family's yearly reunion. You're staying with her parents, Harriet Sylvia and Ezekiel Jude Seelen while you do so. You love hanging out with all of her siblings, Evangeline, Clementine, Amos, Cecilia, Amity, Matilda, Jasper, Cordelia, and Felix, their spouses, and all your nieces and nephews, as Ophelia is the youngest child in her family. They're always talking to you guys ans giving advice about child rearing, relationships, etc and while irksome at times you know it all comes from a good and loving place. Later, when speaking to Amity, they ask you if you plan to have anymore kids or if you guys just plan to have Hazel. You offhandedly comment that you would like more kids, but are unsure when you and Ophelia intend to look into further adoption and go back to talking about other things, but the thought does seem to stay with you a bit.

 

The night after the reunion and after coming home from work and putting Hazel to bed, you and Ophelia are reading in bed when Ophelia brings back up the fact that you both still would like to adopt internationally and that that can take quite a bit of time. You agree with Ophelia having known other people in the adoption community in online support groups who have waited years, you know you just got very lucky with Hazel.  You both agree to go to bed and place a call with your case worker and agency tomorrow about paper work considering the likely occurrence of a two to four year wait to be matched up with a child.

 

The next day on your lunch break you place a call to your agent, Solveig Marisol Schmidt,and she agrees it would be good to start working through the papers since it could take some time. Solveig explains which countries they have current associations with and informs you that you and Ophelia need to pick one to start the process. We chit chat a little more about how Hazel is doing before hanging up and heading back to work that day, extremely excited.

 

That night you ask Ophelia's oldest sibling and their spouse - Evangeline and [blank] - to watch Hazel so you and Ophelia can decide on which country you want to adopt from. After leaving Hazel you go out and have a nice dinner together for the first time in awhile and savor it, making some small work talk before hitting to harder subjects. You discuss some of the places that intrigue you both, you make it down to your top three locations, Korea, Ukraine and Turkey, eventually you end up deciding on Ukraine because you know that there are lots of orphaned refugee children.

 

Later that night you and Ophelia send an email off to your agent to get the ball rolling on the process. The next day you pick up Hazel from Ophelia's sibling and feel refreshed and excited about your decision. Over the next couple of months, both you and Ophelia  work through the paper work, have your home visits and then hit the dry spell you knew would hit, but you fill it with exciting things including your first family vacation with Hazel.

 

It takes some time for you to decide, but you end up picking the Bahamas. You and Ophelia pick a less crowded week to take off, not around traditional holidays and then spend said week with your family making memories and taking a ton of photos. Hazel loved getting to see the fish and tide pools!

 

Sadly, even after that you still haven't heard much back from your agent other then she's still looking to match you and Ophelia with a child. You try not to feel disheartened by the time frame and continue to enjoy life as it is now. You get into a routine again with Ophelia and Hazel, and your monthly discussions with your case worker to check in until it's been about a year and a half since you put in the paper work and Hazel is just a month away from turning three! You can't believe how big she's gotten.

 

While shopping for themed thing for Hazel's party, they're having a super hero theme, you get a call from your agent. They've found a match! You ask agent if you can call them back in a minute as your out and not at a computer to receive the file and they agree. You rush through check out and quickly call Ophelia telling them they need to get home; you've been matched! You throw everything into the car and drive home and thankfully Ophelia is there as well and you call back your agent who informs you that you've been matched with twin boys who are  two years old, and you couldn't be more thrilled. You speak with her for another hour before she sends the file and you open it up, look through pictures and feel your heart melt. You and Ophelia browse through it a little more before leaving to go pick up Hazel from a day with Ophelia's parents.

 

You get home and Ophelia makes dinner and you bring up having a younger sibling to Hazel and they seem excited by the idea which eases some of your tension and you call back your agent and talk through the process, you set up to go do a first visit in two months when you'll be off for Christmas break from work. You, Ophelia, your mother and Hazel fly off to Ukraine and meet your precious babies, they have brown hair and brown eyes, they're adorable and downright perfect and you fall in love with them, at the end of the week and a half when you have to say good bye, you can't imagine anything more painful, but your mother and Ophelia help you get through it. You'll be returning for them soon enough.

 

As soon as your family gets home, you start to set up a nursery for your little ones. You get Hazel involved with painting and helping to set it all up and the next thing you know its been another month and you and Ophelia travel back to Ukraine to go pick up your little ones for good, to take home, and when you arrive, Ophelia's whole family, your mother and Hazel are there with all the food, gifts and babysitting offers you could ever want; of course what they're all eagerly awaiting is news your glad to give as you inform them of the names you've chosen for your newest additions, Axel Yorick and Luca Elisha, are welcomed joyfully into the Seeske clan.

 

It has been two years since you welcomed your last child and things have been going well, you're currently in waiting for your next adoption from Haiti, which you settled the paper work on about six months ago. However, before that, you moved the family into a new home considering your growing family you knew you guys would need a little more space, thankfully Ophelia got a promotion the previous year to a tenure track position which has increased your house revenue a small amount.  Because of the help, you ended up moving to a new house, Option 5, a pretty modern house in a neighborhood with lots of parks.  There are many young families in the neighborhood too, so the kids will have friends nearby!

 

It's late at night and you're currently organizing some files for work and are surprised when the phone rings and you see its your case worker, Solveig, as she had already spoken to you earlier today to once more inform you that you were still on the waiting list to be matched up with a child, and it was looking like no movement would be coming soon at all. You pick up the phone to answer and ask your social worker why they're calling so late and she informs you she's got some interesting news and a proposal for you and Ophelia it appears that the birth mother of Hazel has fallen pregnant again which was a huge blow for her, she's in college and trying to make the most of her life. Once more she's looking to adopt out her baby, and she wanted to ask you and Ophelia first since the baby would be Hazel's half sibling and she knows it would go to a good home if you both raised the baby. You're stunned. You ask if you have time to think about the decision before giving an answer, you need to talk to Ophelia and discuss it before you make any major decisions.  Solveig says that's fine, but informs you the quicker the better in circumstances like this so Emma Sophia would be able to have more time to find a different family if you pick not to adopt her baby. You inform her you understand and end the conversation.

 

You finish your work and then a few hours later, Ophelia comes home and they just want to go to bed, but you inform them you need to talk. You sit down in your living room with Ophelia and inform them about the situation at hand, how Emma Sophia is pregnant again and would like your family to adopt the baby. At first Ophelia is as shocked as you were, but they bring up how you both want a big family. You agree and bring up all the empty space in your new large home. You both decide to sleep on it and head to bed

 

The next morning as you're bringing your kids to school and pre-school for the day, you bring up the idea of if they might like a new brother or sister and they respond individually. Luca and Elisha are both excited about the prospect, and Hazel is overjoyed, and this make you feel even more effervescent. You drop all the kids off and think about what your children said and head off to work, you have a pretty good day and your co-worker even brings in her new baby, and you coo over him, he's absolutely adorable and it makes your heart yearn for another child. Later that day, when you go home, you and Ophelia seem to both agree, you'd like to adopt Emma Sophia's baby. You call back your social worker and tell her that you would like to adopt the baby and she is more than pleased to hear it and you start up the process for it once more, signing things, agreeing to pay for certain costs and such.

 

Only a few months later you speak with Emma Sophia to see how she is doing and how schooling is going for her, and its good, thankfully it seems her pregnancy will be in its latent months over the summer and it won't affect her school work, she also informs you that she's found out the baby's gender that day and the baby is a boy. You're thrilled and quickly send off a text to Ophelia to let them know before wishing birth mother well and heading off your lunch break to get back to work.

 

When you get home that day you surprise your mother with the news that she'll be a grandmother again and of course she's thrilled. Then you inform the children who still don't entirely all seem so sure, but when you explain that they can help you decorate the room. Axel and Luca are very excited, but Hazel seems a little more hesitant so you try and get them involved, but soon enough the nursery is done and looks fantastic. All your children now seem excited, especially Hazel.

 

As the pregnancy progresses, its time to start thinking about names and you and Ophelia talk back and forth having some trouble, but in the end you find some names you like and can agree on for the baby's first name, Evander, but have trouble finding a matching middle name, but decide to leave it be for now. It'll come to you later and its not worth fighting over with Ophelia.

 

Of course, nothing can go as expected and on a hot, July afternoon, Emma Sophia goes into labor three weeks early and your baby arrives! They're 6 pounds and 2 ounces and 17 inches long. This time both you and Ophelia were in the delivery room for the birth and it was magical, a little scary, but magical. Your children are in the waiting room with your mother and Ophelia's parents, who're all very excited to meet their new family member, and so you bring out your black hair and blue-eyed bundle of joy and finally express their full name, Evander Emmett Seeske. You decided to give them a middle name after Emma Sophia since she truly has given you such gifts in Ophelia and in your newest baby. As you seem swaddled in their blanket with your mother holding him and your other children watching them with wide, excited eyes you could not find yourself ever feeling this happy before and you're so grateful.

 

 

It's been a year since you brought home Evander and things have been great, you love seeing your kids together, playing and just being together. As an only child, you found yourself quite lonely growing up and see Hazel, Axel, Luca and Ander all together it makes your heart feel warm. It also gives you major headaches when they fight sometimes, but that's just part of the territory. One thing you also missed greatly when you were growing up was a pet, your family had a dog when you were very little, but you never really grew up with a pet and you want that for your kids. Ophelia agrees having been raised with cats, dogs and ferrets her whole life. We decide the most amiable pet would probably be a cat.

 

As you would NEVER EVER go to a breeder-there are so many amazing cats without homes in the world, and all purebred animals have such major health problems because of the narrowness of the definitions.  After visiting a couple of cat shelters, the children, Ophelia, and I meet and fall in love with a female Siamese-mix cat that is currently named Emerson...SO not the right name for this sweetie! We bring the little one home and realize we need to put some good work into a name!  Every one of you submitted ideas - your youngest child with a little help from O. Some of our favorites were Sylvia, Matisse, Tesseract, Roo, Gemini, and Madeleine.  Hazel's name gets picked and thus your new family member is Tesseract (Tessy) Seeske!

 

Soon enough, your new little fluff is settled and it's nice, they're good for helping teach the kids some responsibility as they all have little chores to help out with your new pet. Plus they're cute as can be and have gained your instagram account an odd dozen or so new followers who love pictures of your adorable kitten.

 

A few weeks after you get your pet, you finally get a call from Solveig that your papers have gone through to Haiti and you've been given a match! You've been matched with a female who is three, from the email accompanying the call you and Ophelia see that the little one has brown hair and dark brown eyes. Your instantly awestruck and in love. You read through everything and agree, this little one is just meant to be a part of your family.

 

Thankfully, a month later, its summer vacation and so you leave your kids and lovely pet with Ophelia's brother Amos for two weeks while you head off to Haiti to go meet your newest child for the first time in their country and you have an amazing time with them, spending some time alone, but also partaking in some cultural activities related to their culture heritage. There is so much good music and we love all of the bright colors.  We're going to have to incorporate more brights at our house!  It hurts to leave them, but you hug them tight and promise you'll be back for them soon. You come back home and spend a few days with yourself and Ophelia before you in-law brings your kids and pet back home. You hug them all and show them pictures of your time with their new sister who will be coming home very soon. You all get together and make up their new room in the house for them - nursery.

 

In fact, its only a month later in August that you fly back to Haiti to pick up your child since overcrowding and needed space you have to just get in and out, its a fast and messy four day procedure, but when you arrive to the airport to see all of your family, your mother, Ophelia's parents, your brothers and sisters in law and all your nieces and nephews along with your kids with banners welcoming the family home as you walk over and introduce them now all in person to Eden Opal, the newest member of the family.

 

It's been about two years since you welcomed Eden into your family. Unfortunately, tragedy has struck. As surprising as it is, about two years ago you reconnected with your old roommate Leslie, surprisingly at a mommy and me class, and the two of you became friends; she had matured a lot since you last saw her, apparently it was a new thing since she had turned her life around after getting pregnant on a one night stand and having her little girl Phoebe Branwen Iverson. You two started having play dates with your kids and actually gotten along quite so much so that now that she and her boyfriend, Tate Wyatt Hightower, are expecting a baby and she has asked you and Ophelia to be the god parents and you couldn't be happier, sadly something went wrong. Only a few months after their daughter Harper Zada Iverson was born Leslie and Tate are a part of a tragic car accident and die on impact. Thankfully, the kids were at home that night with a babysitter and are fine.

 

The news devastates you when you get the call the night after, and what is even more shocking is that you find out that you and Ophelia have been listed in their will to inherit not only a large lump some of money, as well as managing trusts for both of their children, but they would like you and Ophelia to be the guardians of their children and adopt them. Leslie was an only child of a single father who passed away during your time in college and Tate was the only child of parents who are quite old now and are in no shape to take on a three year old and a three month old full time.

 

While you are stunned at first, you both know there is no one else out there to take in these children, but the two of you. If you decline they will end up in the foster system, will probably end up being separated from one another, it's not a pretty picture. Their best chance at remaining together and being able to have a relationship with their grandparents is you and Ophelia. You already adore and love Phoebe from spending time with them and your heart breaks at the idea of saying no to her, and so after taking another night talking with Ophelia you both decide to go through with it and adopt them.

 

Most of the paper work is set up and you have Solveig look over it just to make sure everything is correct in the paper work before signing it. They're currently spending the weekend with their grandparents while you and Ophelia set up a room for them - Option 3. As soon as its done you call their grandparents and arrange to pick Phoebe and Harper up from them.

 

You bring them home and they're quiet at first, but Eden gives Phoebe a big hug and takes them over to play some games with Hazel, Axel, Luca, and Evander, and it makes you happy to see how intuitive your kids are at cheering Phoebe up while you rock Harper and call up [your mother] and inform them of what is going on and asking her to come stay with you for a few days to help out with getting everything settled. Your mother agrees and doesn't mind at all, feeling saddened beyond belief for the poor kids. It's rough at first, Phoebe is constantly asking for her mommy and daddy and has some nightmares and the little one still does not sleep through the night, thankfully your mother's help makes it better the first few weeks and it becomes routine for you all and you settle in. Now, you couldn't imagine your life without them both living with you. You and Ophelia decide to make everything more official by hyphenating Phoebe and Harper's last names with your own. That way they are a part of your family without losing their old family.

 

 

Three short months later and it seems as if Phoebe and Harper have always been a part of your family. They fit into your daily life and its like they have always been there with you. What surprises you is when you get a call from Solveig, things had been so busy that you had forgotten that before you'd even taken Phoebe and Harper you had been looking into fostering and or adopting another child domestically. There is a child in need of a placement, a little girl who had blond hair and green eyes and was left at a fire station, there is no other information on them, but a doctor calculated a close to approximate age as just about one year old.

 

You feel stressed about the idea, but your Solveig explains that you are the fourth person she's called and the last person on her list before the child will have to be sent to a home. You agree to take the little one in just for now, until they can find another place to stay. For now though, they need a name, so you and Ophelia use some names you had considered if you had more children and call them Haven Lavender instead Jane Doe. As time progress though, its been a month, and the makeshift room you've had for Haven had become a full on room - Option 5 . They've seemingly settled in and so you agreed to foster them instead of just being a continued emergency placement.

 

 

It's been three years since you welcomed home your last child and since then you have officially adopted Haven, who  you were previously fostering. Things have been fantastic and recently you retired from your job - you enjoyed the job a lot, but you wanted to do something else. You decided to open your own business working on the software side of medical instrument development.  Opening your own business has allowed you more time at home, to spend with your kids and to get them involved with your business to help teach them a good work ethic and skills for themselves.

 

Things have been good with the running of your business, taking time with your children and even playing with Tesseract more often. You feel more carefree and at home and with your kids getting older - you can't help wanting to hold another baby in your arms. You speak to Ophelia about it and they feel similarly about the whole thing - so you call Solveig and let them know you'd like to be put on the list and that by the end of the week you'll have an updated baby book ready. Things progress amiably and the older kids help make it and everything. It's a fun family bonding experience for you all and once its done you send it off to Solveig so she can set it up.

 

In fact things have been going so well, and with the expansion of your family and large income increase thanks to how well your business has been doing you decide to buy the home for sale next to your own. You bulldoze the home and have your family move into a single level condo for two months. During this time you hire a construction crew and have them expand upon your property and merge things expanding upon your home - adding eight rooms to your home as well as expanding upon your home adding a large, attached greenhouse for light and warmth in the winter. 

 

Once the construction is done and you move in you're honestly in-love and so are the kids, they're all happy to have their own rooms and not be so cramped as it was at the temporary housing while you were waiting for the construction to be done. The even better news is just a few weeks after moving back in you get a call from Solveig. She's found you guys a match! A young woman who is in the middle of attending law school, she and her now ex-boyfriend got pregnant and while they had thought about keeping them at first realized they could barely keep a relationship working let alone take care of two - yes two - babies. The woman is expecting twins. However, before she agrees to finalize anything she would like to meet you and Ophelia to see if she feels as comfortable with you as she did when reading your family book.

 

A week later you meet her - Ruth Constance Monroe - and she's amazing. A well put together young woman, you talk for awhile and find some common ground, a love of literature, which helps ease you all into conversation. It's much different then when you dealt with Emma Sophia - it seems Ruth has a plan for her life and knows what she wants to do and is working for it which impresses you and Ophelia quite a lot.  After you guys speak for a few hours, Ruth admits she feels rather confident with having her children be adopted into your family. She feels that you two are loving an caring people and in the photo book your family looks happy and you're doing all these fantastic things which is what she wants for her babies. The three of you all agree on wanting this and the only thing Ruth would like you to do is pay for health care costs, nothing more and that is fine so you call up Solveig and they agree to work on a contract for you all to sign soon. You say your goodbyes and head back home to your kids and are excited to see them, you all have a family movie night and settle in.

 

A few days later Solveig faxes over the contract to you and in it is everything you discussed with Ruth, you'll pay for her pregnancy related medical costs and in addition she would like a nearly closed adoption - she's just like yearly updates on their birthday with pictures and a letter just talking about them and how they've been doing. As long as no contact is initiated you're happy and this is no hardship to complete for the woman gifting you two precious babies to care for and love. You and Ophelia sign the contract and move on from their and inform the kids they'll be getting not just one, but two more little siblings - everyone is excited, although Axel and Luca are particularly interested in having more twins in the family.  You and Ophelia must admit that you're curious about more twins as well. 

 

A month later you get an excited call from Solveig as Ruth visited the doctor that day and found out that you will be expecting twin girls and you're thrilled. Solveig promises to mail you the pictures of the sonograms and everything else from the doctor's visit to keep you informed. 

 

Now that you know the gender of the twins, you and the family make another nursery for them. For now they'll share to make life a little easier for you and Ophelia when you have to do late night feedings and when they're a little older you'll give them rooms of their own, unless they don't want the separation.  Of course, they will not be sleeping in the new nursery until they are older-children should sleep in the same room as their mothers for the first year, at least! The new nursery has jam-packed bookshelves and two beautiful rocking chairs.

 

The next four months pass in a flurry and you get a call from Solveig that Ruth has started labor before your planned c-section date and so she's going to the hospital now to do it. You frantically call up all your family; your mother rushes over to watch the kids while you and Ophelia head off to the hospital.  Ruth doesn't want you guys in the room and you respect that, waiting in the lounge as the hours pass, but soon enough Solveig comes out to inform you both babies are happy and health - ten fingers and ten toes. The oldest is five pounds and six ounces and eighteen inches long while the younger twin is five pounds even and nineteen inches long.  Ruth spends an hour with each baby, gifting them hand knitted blankets and hats she made for them before kissing each on the head and handing them to you with tears in her eyes, she thanks you for loving them and asks that you move into a different room so she can rest and you do. Staring at your beautiful little ones.  Astrid Rue has brown hair and green eyes while Wren Constanza has black hair and green eyes and as you look at them you know the names you picked fit them perfectly - and more than that you know they're meant for your family and with them your family finally feels complete. 



#3 glitchinggecko

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Posted 01 February 2016 - 01:43 AM

Seb started failing his college classes. He finally admitted he had no real interest in any of his subjects and that he wanted to drop out. He decided to go to trade school and is learning to become a carpenter.
 
Anna started getting into fights. After talking to a therapist, they confirmed there was nothing medically wrong with her, and advised she be enrolled into something to channel her aggression. She's thoroughly enjoying her boxing and kickboxing lessons.
 
Nat broke down one evening and told us she was five months pregnant. We were shocked, especially as she hasn't put on any weight, and doesn't have a boyfriend, but we assured her we'd support her in whatever decision she made. She gave birth to a little girl she named Beatrice 'Bea' Aurora. She decided that she'd like us to act us parents for her, but that she'd tell her the truth before she started school.
 
Gray has been very depressed and quiet. He admitted that he was being bullied. He'd confessed to having a crush on a male classmate to a few close friends, and one had turned on him and told the whole school. He's much happier in his new school.
 
Toby has also been getting into fights. Gray admitted that his younger, yet bigger, brother had been defending him against bullies whenever he was able. Whilst we were proud of Toby for sticking up for his brother, we explained that this wasn't neccesarily the best course of action.
 
~~~~~
 
Gregor 'Greg' Archibald Maes [51]
Blonde Hair - Hazel Eyes - Retired History Professor - Bookshop Owner
Pops of Seb, Wes, Joe, Anna, Nat, Tilly, Gray, Toby, Godric, Charlie and Jamie
 
Zacharias 'Zack' Jasper Maes [51]
Blonde Hair - Blue Eyes - Retired Political TV Correspondant
Dad of Seb, Wes, Joe, Anna, Nat, Tilly, Gray, Toby, Godric, Charlie and Jamie
 
Sebastian 'Seb' Jasper Maes [20]
Brown Hair - Blue Eyes - Biological Child of Emily 'Milly' Sophia Vega
 
Wesley 'Wes' Archibald Maes [19]
Blonde Hair - Blue Eyes - Adopted from Ukraine
 
Joseph 'Joe' Zacharias Maes [19]
Blonde Hair - Blue Eyes - Adopted from Ukraine
 
Anneliese 'Anna' Emily Maes [15]
Brown Hair - Hazel Eyes - Biological Child of Emily 'Milly' Sophia Vega
 
Natalia 'Nat' Greer Maes [15]
Blonde Hair - Blue Eyes - Adopted from Ukraine - Mother of Bea
 
Matilda 'Tilly' Noelle Whittaker Maes [15]
Back Hair - Green Eyes - Biological Child of Madison 'Maddie' Riley Vaughn
 
Grayson 'Gray' Oliver Maes [13]
Blonde Hair - Blue Eyes - Adopted Domestically
 
Tobias 'Toby' Felix Whittaker Maes [12]
Black Hair - Green Eyes - Biological Child of Madison 'Maddie' Riley Vaughn and Jayden 'Jay' Luca Whittaker
 
Godric Maes [12]
Golden Retreiver
 
Charles 'Charlie' Marcus Maes [9]
Red Hair - Brown Eyes - Biological Child of Margaret 'Maggie' Eleanor Vincent
 
James 'Jamie' Elliott Maes [9]
Red Hair - Brown Eyes - Biological Child of Margaret 'Maggie' Eleanor Vincent
 
Beatrice 'Bea' Aurora Maes [0]
Blonde Hair - Blue Eyes - Biological Child of Natalia 'Nat' Greer Maes
 
~~~~~
 
Margaret 'Maggie' Katherine Hansen [66]
Black Hair - Hazel Eyes - Mom of Greg

 
~~~~~
 
Tobias 'Toby' Jasper Maes Sr [86]
Blonde Hair - Green Eyes - Father of Toby, Tad, Bea and Zack
 
Lillian 'Lily' Eleanor Maes [82]
Brown Hair - Blue Eyes - Mother of Toby, Tad, Bea and Zack

 
~~~~~
 
Tobias 'Toby' Jasper Maes Jr [53]
Brown Hair - Green Eyes - Zack's Brother - Husband of Lydia - Father of TJ, Soph and Em
 
Thaddeus 'Tad' Jasper Maes [53]
Brown Hair - Green Eyes - Zack's Brother - Husband of Georgia - Father of Nick, Nate and Nora
 
Beatrice 'Bea' Edith Maes [50]
Blonde Hair - Blue Eyes - Zack's Sister - Wife of Oscar - Mother of Dom and Amy



#4 Holloway

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Posted 07 February 2016 - 02:53 AM

It's been nine years since you adopted your last children and a lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same - since these past nine years you've opened not just one, but two more off shoots of your original business, A writers workshop and a parenting advice column in the local paper, and Ewan has retired from their own job to help you run the business and you both enjoy working together and it helps fulfill another part of your relationship that you had never done before. Plus with a lot of things going so well, you've enjoyed seeing your kids grow up and become more of themselves.

 

However, growing up at times comes with certain difficulties and lately some of the children have been having a few problems with their behavior and school. Hazel, Luca, and Lena are all in college locally but dorming, Luca unlike his sisters is having trouble adjusting to college life and this has been evident in the steady decline in his grades this year. Shiloh has gotten his longtime girlfriend,  Morgana pregnant and seeing her struggle has brought about a desire within him to locate his birth mother, he has spoken to Hazel about this but she never had any desire to search out Sophia when she turned 18. Matty has begun to develop an attitude problem and you worry it may be related to her new Highschool friends, and her new sarcastic tone has begun to rub off on her sibling as both Flynn and Astrid's teachers have contacted you about their recent personality change 

 

With all of this happening at once, you and Ewan have decided to have the kids switch out of their schools into a private one, away from any previous bad influence or place that might be giving your kids trouble,  and hope that perhaps a change of pace will help the children to settle down and become a bit happier. Once the switch happens and the children have started school again, we notice that Luca is continuing to struggle and will probably continue his next semester from home without all of the distractions of dorm life, Shy's girlfriend has moved in to the house so that the babies can be close to their father with the added bonus of a plethora of babysitters, but Matty's attitude is improving now that she is in a new school with new friends and this seems to ave had a positive effect on Flynn and Ace as well.

 

While we weren't expecting grandchildren so early, we love the newest addition to the family, Solomon Mitchum Lane-Raske and Malcolm Spencer Lane-Raske

 

Clover Myra and Ewan Felix Raske (55)

Red hair and Blue eyes, Blonde Hair and Blue eyes

 

DD: Hazel Genevieve Raske (22) (Birth Mother: Sophia Emily Vega)

       Red hair and Brown eyes

DS/DD: Luca Daniel and Lena Felicity Raske( 18)

       Black Hair and Brown Eyes

DS: Shiloh Emmett Raske (16 ) (Birth Mother: Sophia Emily Vega)-Morgana Elodie Lane

       Red Hair  and Hazel eyes 

                     DGS/DGS: Solomon Mitchum Lane-Raske "Sol"/Malcolm Spencer Lane-Raske "Mac"

                                            Brown hair and blue eyes/Red hair and blue eyes

DD: Matilda Snow Marquis-Raske (15)

      Blonde Hair and Blue eyes

DD: Eden Myra Raske (14)

       Black Hair and Brown Eyes

DS: Flynn Gideon Raske (13)

       Red Hair and Hazel Eyes

DS: Devon Asher Marquis-Raske (12)

       Brown hair and Blue eyes

DD/DS: Astrid Louise and Angus Clark (9) (Birth Mother: Louisa Claire Nelson)

        Blonde hair Hazel eyes and Brown hair Blue eyes

 

Golden Retriever: Jake (14)

 

Clove and Ewan Raske with Hazel, Luca, Lena, Shy, Matty, Edie, Flynn, Dev, Ace, Gus, and Jake

Shy and Morgana with Sol and Mac



#5 brimariiee

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Posted 04 March 2016 - 07:02 PM

Your name is Ruby Jean Olsen, you have blonde hair and blue eyes and you're 21 years old. You're a student at Fordham University and you're pursuing a major in History. Ever since you've come to college, you've always been focused on your studies, you've worked very hard to get into Fordham and need to maintain a certain GPA to continue getting your scholarship money to enable you to continue, the second being you need to be able to get scholarships to go on and further your education.

 

However, today is the last day of your  Junior year of undergrad and you've just taken your final exam, you're thrilled, and feel like you've passed all your classes with flying colors and you could not be more ecstatic. All you want to do now is sleep, maybe watch some netflix, but your roommate, Aubrey Taylor Johnson,  insists you accompany her to the party to make sure she gets home safe since she plans on drinking. You loathe the idea, but she did help you out studying for your final in Statistics. So, you accompany her to the party and watch her have a good time and hang out on the outskirts of the party.

 

Suddenly, a guy comes up to you. You dismiss him at first, but he made a comment about the Millionaires since I was wearing their merch which kind of catches your interest. Horatio Atticus Pender's got black hair and blue eyes and introduces themselves as Horatio, they're 21 years old. You start talking to Horatio and find out about them, they're apparently legacies of the university, went to prep schools their whole life, have traveled the world with their bourgeois family and while that would usually make you feel a bit of a chip on your shoulder, for some reason, it doesn't with Horatio. You find them charming. You also find out that Horatio is majoring in Biochemistry and the way they speak about their major so passionately entices you. You talk for hours before your roommate stumbles over. Realizing you need to get her home, but not wanting the conversation with Horatio to end so you exchange numbers and promise to call them later. You leave with your roommate and head back to your dorm, feeling much happier than when you arrived at the party.

 

It's been ten years since the night of the party and you honestly cannot help but to look back fondly on it. It's the first night you met Horatio who has now become your husband. You've both graduated from not only your undergrad programs, but from your respective graduate programs and are each working in your dream jobs as a history professor and a biochemist. You and Horatio could not be happier right now. However, there does seem to be something missing. The pitter patter of little feet. So, you and Horatio decide to start trying for a family, you spend 1 year trying and failing to get pregnant, but nothing happens. No pregnancy.

 

You see a fertility doctor who unfortunately informs you that between the two of you there is a low sperm count and apparently a previously undiagnosed case of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome between you. The chance of you two having a biological child together is next to near impossible. The first thought of it stuns you both, you go home with that knowledge and both discuss some options, but you mostly grieve your loss. Both you and Horatio have always wanted a big family, you as an only child and then Horatio comes from a big family with a slew of brothers and sisters.
 

It takes you 3 months to finally broach the subject of what you two want to do next, stay childless or look into adoption. It's an easy discussion between you and you decide you want to look into adoption. The first thing you decide is to look into both international adoption and domestic adoption. It takes some time to find an agency to work with and then to get your home looked into and approved for viability. It's a longer process then expected, but a year later you've been set up by the agency and made an adoption book and just hoped that you would be matched with someone; then one day you were.

 

Your case worker informs you that you've been chosen by a young teen, Emma Mary Vega, who has fallen pregnant. She wants the adoption to be closed. While you feel sorry for the girl, an excitement does well inside of your chest. You and Horatio want this, you want to be parents. You meet with Emma and she comes to your house. You all talk and in the end, you sign the papers. You agree to help pay for the cost of her pregnancy from now on, from making sure her medical bills are paid, new maternity clothes are purchased and help her with getting good healthy food. Other than that there is minimal contact which works well for all parties. 

 

You find out at the six month mark that Emma is expecting a boy. Either sex would have been okay, but you and Horatio are just so thrilled. The first thing you both do is go to half a dozen baby stores and purchase all the things you have always wanted to buy. You spend hours after, well into the night and wee hours of the morning setting up a nursery. It looks so beautiful and you honestly cry. You never thought that first night after seeing the infertility doctor you would ever get to set up a nursery.

 

The rest of the pregnancy goes by so fast, you work through the whole situation by working extra hours and then well, it happens. Emma goes into labor. It's a quick one and you're there the whole time in the waiting room. Your little one is born perfect with blonde hair and hazel eyes weighing in at 7 pounds and 9 ounces and 23 inches long. Emma signs away her rights without ever seeing him. You feel incredible when you look down and just know August Tobias Pender is coming home with you. Where they belong and you and Horatio feel such joy as you strap them into their car seat to take Gus home.

 

It has been a year since you welcomed Gus into your family and both you and Horatio love being parents, while at times its very hard considering you both work demanding jobs and with you having been promoted up a position to being tenured, but thanks to help from your mother, Olivia Jane Olsen, you know Gus is always in good hands even if you and Horatio are busy with work.

 

However, later that week you,   Horatio and Gus attend his family's yearly reunion. You're staying with his parents, Vivian Eloise Pender and Roman Elias Pender, while you do so. You love hanging out with all of his siblings, (Eliza Clementine Thatcher, Violet Mae Yates, and Matilda Edith Urban), their spouses, (Oscar Josiah Thatcher, Jasper Montgomery Yates, and Sebastian Phineas Urban), and all your nieces and nephews, (Josie Eliza Thatcher, Natalie Rose Thatcher, Amelia Kate Thatcher, Georgia Claire Thatcher, Isaiah Oscar Thatcher, Daisy Alice Yates, Lucy Violet Yates, Maisie Hope Yates, Zoe Paige Yates, Grace "Gracie" Anna Yates, Milo Sebastian Urban, Sawyer Elias Urban, Fiona Edith Urban, Tess Margaret Urban, and Quentin Anderson Urban), as Horatio is the youngest child in his family. They're always talking to you guys and giving advice about child rearing, relationships, etc and while irksome at times you know it all comes from a good and loving place. Later, when speaking to Violet, they ask you if you plan to have anymore kids or if you guys just plan to have Gus. You offhandedly comment that you would like more kids, but are unsure when you and Horatio intend to look into further adoption and go back to talking about other things, but the thought does seem to stay with you a bit.

 

The night after the reunion and after coming home from work and putting Gus to bed, you and Horatio are reading in bed when Horatio brings back up the fact that you both still would like to adopt internationally and that that can take quite a bit of time. You agree with Horatio having known other people in the adoption community in online support groups who have waited years, you know you just got very lucky with Gus. You both agree to go to bed and place a call with your case worker and agency tomorrow about paper work considering the likely occurrence of a two to four year wait to be matched up with a child.

 

The next day on your lunch break you place a call to your agent, Allegra Giselle Smith, and she agrees it would be good to start working through the papers since it could take some time. Allegra explains which countries they have current associations with and informs you that you and Horatio need to pick one to start the process. We chit chat a little more about how Gus is doing before hanging up and heading back to work that day, extremely excited.

 

That night you ask Horatio's oldest sibling and their spouse - Eliza and Oscar - to watch Gus so you and Horatio can decide on which country you want to adopt from. After leaving Gus you go out and have a nice dinner together for the first time in awhile and savor it, making some small work talk before hitting to harder subjects. You discuss some of the places that intrigue you both, you make it down to your top three locations, Ireland, Ethiopia, and Sweden, eventually you end up deciding on Ethiopia because you feel they have a higher need for adoptive parents.

 

Later that night you and Horatio send an email off to your agent to get the ball rolling on the process. The next day you pick up Gus from Horatio's sibling and feel refreshed and excited about your decision. Over the next couple of months, both you and Horatio work through the paper work, have your home visits and then hit the dry spell you knew would hit, but you fill it with exciting things including your first family vacation with Gus.

 

It takes some time for you to decide, but you end up picking the Bahamas to go to Atlantis. You and Horatio pick a less crowded week to take off, not around traditional holidays and then spend said week with your family making memories and taking a ton of photos. You had a lot of fun at the dolphin cay,the water park, rock climbing and even getting to check out the comedy club and the spa but, it definitely was a long flight both ways with a young child.

 

Sadly, even after that you still haven't heard much back from your agent other then she's still looking to match you and Horatio with a child. You try not to feel disheartened by the time frame and continue to enjoy life as it is now. You get into a routine again with Horatio and Gus, and your monthly discussions with your case worker to check in until it's been about a year and a half since you put in the paper work and Gus is just a month away from turning three! You can't believe how big they've gotten.

 

While shopping for themed thing for Gus' party, they're having a Despicable Me theme, you get a call from your agent. They've found a match! You ask agent if you can call them back in a minute as your out and not at a computer to receive the file and they agree. You rush through check out and quickly call Horatio telling them they need to get home; you've been matched! You throw everything into the car and drive home and thankfully Horatio is there as well and you call back your agent who informs you that you've been matched with a 2 year old girl and you couldn't be more thrilled. You speak with her for another hour before she sends the file and you open it up, look through pictures and feel your heart melt. You and Horatio browse through it a little more before leaving to go pick up Gus from a day with Horatio's parents.

 

You get home and Horatio makes dinner and you bring up having a younger sibling to Gus and they seem excited by the idea which eases some of your tension and you call back your agent and talk through the process, you set up to go do a first visit in two months when you'll be off for Christmas break from work. You, Horatio, your mother and Gus fly off to Ethiopia and meet your precious baby, they have black hair and dark brown eyes, for the first time, they're adorable and down right perfect and you fall in love with them, at the end of the week and a half when you have to say good, you can't imagine anything more painful, but your mother and Horatio help you get through it. You'll be returning for them soon enough.

 

As soon as your family gets home, you start to set up a nursery for your little one. You get Gus involved with painting and helping to set it all up and the next thing you know its been another month and you and Horatio travel back to Ethiopia to go pick up your little one for good, to take home, and when you arrive, Horatio's whole family, your mother and Gus are there with all the food, gifts and babysitting offers you could ever want; of course what they're all eagerly awaiting is news your glad to give as you inform them of the names you've chosen for your newest addition, Juliette Horatia Pender, is welcomed joyfully into the Pender clan.

 

It has been two years since you welcomed your last child and things have been going well, you're currently in waiting for your next adoption from Columbia, which you settled the paper work on about six months ago. However, before that, you moved the family into a new home considering your growing family you knew you guys would need a little more space, thankfully Horatio got a promotion the previous year to - Head Biochemist - which has increased your house revenue by tenfold. Which helped, you ended up moving to a new house, it has 5 bedrooms and 4 1/2 baths with one bedroom converted into a playroom for the kids. You chose this house because it just gives you that overall 'homey' feel.

 

It's late at night and you're currently organizing some files for work and are surprised when the phone rings and you see its your case worker, Allegra, as she had already spoken to you earlier today to once more inform you that you were still on the waiting list to be matched up with a child, and it was looking like no movement would be coming soon at all. You pick up the phone to answer and ask your social worker why they're calling so late and she informs you she's got some interesting news and a proposal for you and Horatio it appears that the birth mother of Gus has fallen pregnant again which was a huge blow for her, she's in college and trying to make the most of her life. Once more she's looking to adopt out her baby, and she wanted to ask you and Horatio first since the baby would be Gus' half sibling and she knows it would go to a good home if you both raised the baby. You're stunned. You ask if you have time to think about the decision before giving an answer, you need to talk to Horatio and discuss it before you make any major decisions. Allegra says that's fine, but informs you the quicker the better in circumstances like this so Emma would be able to have more time to find a different family if you pick not to adopt her baby. You inform her you understand and end the conversation.

 

You finish your work and then a few hours later, Horatio comes home and they just want to go to bed, but you inform them you need to talk. You sit down in your living room with Horatio and inform them about the situation at hand, how Emma is pregnant again and would like your family to adopt the baby. At first Horatio is as shocked as you were, but they bring up how you both want a big family. You agree and bring up all the empty space in your new large home. You both decide to sleep on it and head to bed

 

The next morning as you're bringing your kids to school and pre-school for the day, you bring up the idea of if they might like a new brother or sister and they respond individually. Both seem to be nervous, and this make you feel nervous as well. You drop all the kids off and think about what your children said and head off to work, you have a pretty good day and your co-worker even brings in her new baby, and you coo over him, he's absolutely adorable and it makes your heart yearn for another child. Later that day, when you go home, you and Horatio seem to both agree, you'd like to adopt Emma's baby. You call back your social worker and tell her that you would like to adopt the baby and she is more than pleased to hear it and you start up the process for it once more, signing things, agreeing to pay for certain costs and such.

 

Only a few months later you speak with Emma to see how she is doing and how schooling is going for her, and its good, thankfully it seems her pregnancy will be in its latent months over the summer and it won't affect her school work, she also informs you that she's found out the baby's gender that day and the baby is a - girl. You're thrilled and quickly send off a text to Horatio to let them know before wishing birth mother well and heading off your lunch break to get back to work.

 

When you get home that day you surprise your mother with the news that she'll be a grandmother again and of course she's thrilled. Then you inform the children who still don't entirely all seem so sure, but when you explain that they can help you decorate the room. Juliette is very excited, but Gus seems a little more hesitant so you try and get them involved, but soon enough the nursery is done and looks fantastic. All your children now seem excited, especially Gus.

 

As the pregnancy progresses, its time to start thinking about names and you and Horatio talk back and forth having some trouble, but in the end you find some names you like and can agree on for the baby's first name, Athena, but have trouble finding a matching middle name, but decide to leave it be for now. It'll come to you later and its not worth fighting over with Horatio.

 

Of course, nothing can go as expected and on a hot, July afternoon, Emma goes into labor three weeks early and your baby arrives! They're 6 pounds and 2 ounces and 17 inches long. This time both you and Horatio were in the delivery room for the birth and it was magical, a little scary, but magical. Your children are in the waiting room with your mother and Horatio's parents, who're all very excited to meet their new family member, and so you bring out your blonde hair and hazel eyed bundle of joy and finally express their full name Athena Mary Pender. You decided to give them a middle name after Emma since she truly has given you such gifts in Gus and in your newest baby. As you seem swaddled in their blanket with your mother holding her and your other children watching them with wide, excited eyes you could not find yourself ever feeling this happy before and you're so grateful.

 

It's been a year since you brought home Athena and things have been great, you love seeing your kids together, playing and just being together. As an only child, you found yourself quite lonely growing up and seeing Gus, Juliette, and Athena all together it makes your heart feel warm. It also gives you major headaches when they fight sometimes, but that's just part of the territory. One thing you also missed greatly when you were growing up was a pet, your family had a dog when you were very little, but you never really grew up with a pet and you want that for your kids. Horatio agrees having been raised with cats, dogs and ferrets his whole life. We decide the most amiable pet would probably be a dog.

 

After picking which type of animal you think would be a good fit for your family, you and Horatio go over a list of breeds, you take some votes from your friends and other family members, and end up picking a Siberian Husky. You find a reputable breeder and get yourself on the wait list for their upcoming litter of puppies. Its three months later and you hear back, there is a little male puppy with your name on it if you're ready. Of course you are! You bring the little one home and realize you forgot one very important thing - a name! You show off the little new family member to your kids and Horatio, every one of you submit a name into a hat - your youngest child with a little help from Horatio. You choose Cooper, Horatio chooses Picasso, Gus chooses Jesse, Juliette chooses Drew, and Athena chooses Graham. Once they're all written down you put them in a hat, shake it and pick one name - Gus' name gets picked and thus your new family member is Jesse!

 

Soon enough, your new little fluff is settled and its nice, they're good for helping teach the kids some responsibility as they all have little chores to help out with your new pet. Plus they're cute as can be and have gained your instagram account an odd dozen or so new followers who love pictures of your adorable puppy.

 

A few weeks after you get your pet, you finally get a call from Allegra that your papers have gone through to Columbia and you've been given a match! You've been matched with a boy who is an infant, from the email accompanying the call, you and Horatio see that the little one has brown hair and brown eyes. Your instantly awestruck and in love. You read through everything and agree, this little one is just meant to be a part of your family.

 

Thankfully, a month later, its summer vacation and so you leave your kids and lovely pet with one of Horatio's siblings for two weeks while you head off to Columbia to go meet your newest child for the first time in their country and you have an amazing time with them, spending some time alone, but also partaking in some cultural activities related to their culture heritage. You went and saw some of the Amazon, visited some national parks and museums, and ate at some restaurants to get recipe ideas. It hurts to leave them, but you hug them tight and promise you'll be back for them soon. You come back home and spend a few days with yourself and Horatio before you in-law brings your kids and pet back home. You hug them all and show them pictures of your time with their new brother who will be coming home very soon. You all get together and make up their new room in the house for them - nursery.

 

In fact, its only a month later in August that you fly back to Columbia to pick up your child since overcrowding and needed space you have to just get in and out, its a fast and messy four day procedure, but when you arrive to the airport to see all of your family, your mother, Horatio's parents, your brothers and sisters in law and all your nieces and nephews along with your kids with banners welcoming the family home as you walk over and introduce them now all in person to Leo Gene Pender the newest member of the family.

 

It's been about two years since you welcomed Leo into your family. Unfortunately, tragedy has struck. As surprising as it is, about two years ago you reconnected with Aubrey, surprisingly at a mommy and me class, and the two of you became friends, she had matured a lot since you last saw her, apparently it was a new thing since she had turned her life around after getting pregnant on a one night stand and having her daughter, Lulu Holiday Johnson. You two started having play dates with your kids and actually gotten along quite so much so that now that she and her boyfriend, Ian Henry Kensington,  are expecting a baby and she has asked you and Horatio to be the god parents and you couldn't be happier, sadly something went wrong. Only a few months after their son, Cameron Asher Kensington was born Aubrey and Ian are a part of a tragic car accident and die on impact. Thankfully, the kids were at home that night with a babysitter and are fine.

 

The news devastates you when you get the call the night after, and what is even more shocking is that you find out that you and Horatio have been listed in their will to inherit not only a large lump some of money, as well as managing trusts for both of their children, but they would like you and Horatio to be the guardians of their children and adopt them. Aubrey was an only child of a single father who passed away during your time in college and Ian was the only child of parents who are quite old now and are in no shape to take on a three year old and a three month old full time.

 

While you are stunned at first, you both know there is no one else out there to take in these children, but the two of you. If you decline they will end up in the foster system, will probably end up being separated from one another, it's not a pretty picture. Their best chance at remaining together and being able to have a relationship with their grandparents is you and Horatio. You already adore and love Lulu from spending time with them and your heart breaks at the idea of saying no to her, and so after taking another night talking with Horatio you both decide to go through with it and adopt them.

 

Most of the paper work is set up and you have Allegra look over it just to make sure everything is correct in the paper work before signing it. They're currently spending the weekend with their grandparents while you and Horatio set up a room for them. As soon as its done you call their grandparents and arrange to pick Lulu and Cameron up from them.

 

You bring them home and they're quiet at first, but Leo gives Lulu a big hug and takes them over to play some games with Gus, Juliette, and Athena , and it makes you happy to see how intuitive your kids are at cheering Lulu up while you rock Cameron and call up Olivia and inform them of what is going on and asking her to come stay with you for a few days to help out with getting everything settled. Your mother agrees and doesn't mind at all, feeling saddened beyond belief for the poor kids. It's rough at first, Lulu is constantly asking for her mommy and daddy and has some nightmares and the little one still does not sleep through the night, thankfully your mother's help makes it better the first few weeks and it becomes routine for you all and you settle in. Now, you couldn't imagine your life without them both living with you. You and Horatio decide to make everything more official by hyphenating Lulu and Cameron's last names with your own. That way they are a part of your family without loosing their old family.

 

Three short months later and it seems as if Lulu and Cameron have always been a part of your family. They fit into your daily life and its like they have always been there with you. What surprises you is when you get a call from Allegra, things had been so busy that you had forgotten that before you'd even taken Lulu and Cameron you had been looking into fostering and or adopting another child domestically. There is a child in need of a placement, a little girl who had black hair and brown eyes and was left at a fire station, there is no other information on them, but a doctor calculated a close to approximate age as just about one year old.

 

You feel stressed about the idea, but Allegra explains that you are the fourth person she's called and the last person on her list before the child will have to be sent to a home. You agree to take the little one in just for now, until they can find another place to stay. For now though, they need a name, so you and Horatio use some names you had considered if you had more children and call them - Kennedy Lavender Pender - instead of jane doe. As time progress though, its been a month, and the makeshift room you've had for Kennedy had become a full on room. They've seemingly settled in and so you agreed to foster them instead of just being a continued emergency placement.

 

It's been three years since you welcomed home your last child and since then you have officially adopted, Kennedy, who  you were previously fostering. Things have been fantastic and recently you retired from your job - you enjoyed the job a lot, but you wanted to do something else. You decided to open your own business - a children's museum where you work on bringing history to youth. Opening your own business has allowed you more time at home, to spend with your kids and to get them involved with your business to help teach them a good work ethic and skills for themselves.

 

Things have been good with the running of your business, taking time with your children and even playing with Jesse more often. You feel more carefree and at home and with your kids getting older - you can't help wanting to hold another baby in your arms. You speak to Horatio about it and they feel similarly about the whole thing - so you call Allegra and let them know you'd like to be put on the list and that by the and of the week you'll have an updated baby book ready by the end of the week. Things progress amiably and the older kids help make it and everything. It's a fun family bonding experience for you all and once its done you send it off to Allegra so she can set it up.

 

In fact things have been going so well, and with the expansion of your family and large income increase thanks to how well your business has been doing you decide to buy the home for sale next to your own. You bulldoze the home and have your family move into a one-story condo for 9 weeks. During this time you hire a construction crew and have them expand upon your property and merge things expanding upon your home - adding 6 rooms to your home as well as expanding upon your home adding a library, a theater, a game room, and expanding the playroom.

 

Once the construction is done and you move in you're honestly in-love and so are the kids, they're all happy to have their own rooms and not be so cramped as it was at the temporary housing while you were waiting for the construction to be done. The even better news is just a few weeks after moving back in you get a call from Allegra. She's found you guys a match! A young woman who is in the middle of attending law school, she and her now ex-boyfriend got pregnant and while they had thought about keeping them at first realized they could barely keep a relationship working let alone take care of two - yes two - babies. The woman is expecting twins. However, before she agrees to finalize anything she would like to meet you and Horatio to see if she feels as comfortable with you as she did when reading your family book.

 

A week later you meet her - Caroline Joanna Harvey - and she's amazing. A well put together young woman, you talk for awhile and find some common ground, a love for hockey, which helps ease you all into conversation. It's much different then when you dealt with Emma - it seems Caroline has a plan for her life and knows what she wants to do and is working for it which impresses you and Horatio quite a lot.  After you guys speak for a few hours, Caroline admits she feels rather confident with having her children be adopted into your family. She feels that you two are loving an caring people and in the photo book your family looks happy and you're doing all these fantastic things which is what she wants for her babies. The three of you all agree on wanting this and the only thing Caroline would like you to do is pay for health care costs, nothing more and that is fine so you call up Allegra and they agree to work on a contract for you all to sign soon. You say your goodbyes and head back home to your kids and are excited to see them, you all have a family movie night and settle in.

 

A few days later Allegra faxes over the contract to you and in it is everything you discussed with Caroline, you'll pay for her pregnancy related medical costs and in addition she would like a nearly closed adoption - she's just like yearly updates on their birthday with pictures and a letter just talking about them and how they've been doing. As long as no contact is initiated you're happy and this is no hardship to complete for the woman gifting you two precious babies to care for and love. You and Horatio sign the contract and move on from their and inform the kids they'll be getting not just one, but two more little siblings - Gus is a little nervous about having more siblings but the other kids are plenty excited. Since Lulu seems to be the most excited, you pair her and Gus up in helping getting things ready for the arrival of the babies.

 

A month later you get an excited call from, Allegra, as Caroline visited the doctor that day and found out that you will be expecting identical boys and you're thrilled. Allegra promises to mail you the pictures of the sonograms and everything else from the doctor's visit to keep you informed. 

 

Now that you know the gender of the twins, you and the family take one of the guest rooms you have no and change it into a nursery for them. For now they'll share to make life a little easier for you and Horatio when you have to do late night feedings and when they're a little older you'll give them rooms of their own.  The new nursery.

 

The next four months pass in a flurry and you get a call from Allegra that Caroline has started labor before your planned c-section date and so she's going to the hospital now to do it. You frantically call up all your family, your mother rushes over to watch the kids while you and Horatio head off to the hospital. Caroline doesn't want you guys in the room and you respect that, waiting in the lounge as the hours pass, but soon enough Allegra comes out to inform you both babies are happy and health - ten fingers and ten toes. The oldest is five pounds and six ounces and eighteen inches long while the younger twin is five pounds even and nineteen inches long. Caroline spends an hour with each baby, gifting them hand knitted blankets and hats she made for them before kissing each on the head and handing them to you with tears in her eyes, she thanks you for loving them and asks that you move into a different room so she can rest and you do. Staring at your beautiful little ones. Baby A has black hair and brown eyes while Baby B also has black hair and brown eyes and as you look at them you know the names you picked fit them perfect - Logan Harvey Pender and Alistair Joseph Pender - and more than that you know they're meant for your family and with them your family finally feels complete. 

 

It's been nine years since you adopted your last children and a lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same - since these past nine years you've opened not just one, but two more off shoots of your original business-Mini Historians, Split Plants (focuses on the history of plants) and Lil Sapiens (focuses on the history of human life), and Horatio has retired from their own job to help you run the business and you both enjoy working together and it helps fulfill another part of your relationship that you had never done before. Plus with a lot of things going so well, you've enjoyed seeing your kids grow up and become more of themselves.

 

However, growing up at times comes with certain difficulties and lately some of the children have been having a few problems with their behavior and school.
 

Gus has no problems.

Juliette has no problems.

Athena has no problems.

Lulu's grades are declining due to a recent breakup.
Leo got a girl pregnant. However, her family doesn't want to raise the baby so the baby lives with us.
Kennedy is starting fights to stand up for her younger brother.

Cameron's grades are declining due to being bullied.

Logan is developing an attitude problem for unknown reasons currently.

Alistair's grades are declining due to lack of interest.

 

With all of this happening at once, you and Horatio have decided to have the kids switch out of their schools into a private one, away from any previous bad influence or place that might be giving your kids trouble,  and hope that perhaps a change of pace will help the children to settle down and become a bit happier. Once the switch happens and the children have started school again, we notice that the children's problems aren't really improving.

 

Lulu is still struggling so we decide to let her see a therapist as well as trying to help her meet new people.
Having Leo's son, Wyatt Matthew Pender (who has black hair and blue eyes like his mom), live with us has been going great and after much discussion, he has informed us that he won't have any more children until after he is done with school.

While we weren't expecting grandchildren so early, we love the newest addition to the family.

Kennedy is still getting into fights so we get her seeing a therapist as well and we sign her up for the track team at school as a way to unleash her anger.
Cameron is still pretty upset from being bullied at his last school and we are just at a loss for what to do. He is also seeing a therapist while we try to come up with an extra solution.
Logan still has his attitude problem and at this point we are assuming his age is a factor.  He is welcome to see a therapist as well but we are mostly just trying to give it time for now unless it becomes a bigger issue.
Alistair's grades are not only not improving but, he is talking about wanting to drop out as soon as he can.

_______________________________________________

Olivia with Ruby
Roman and Vivian with Eliza, Violet, Matilda, and Horatio
Eliza and Oscar with Josie, Natalie, Amelia, Georgia, and Isaiah

Violet and Jasper with Daisy, Lucy, Maisie, Zoe, and Gracie
Matilda and Sebastian with Milo, Sawyer, Fiona, Tess, and Quentin
Horatio and Ruby with Gus, Juliette, Athena, Lulu, Leo, Kennedy, Cameron, Logan, Alistair, and furbaby: Jesse
Leo with Wyatt

 



#6 Puppylover12397

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Posted 05 March 2016 - 08:17 PM

My name is Flora Lorna Larsen, I have Brown Hair and Brown Eyes and I'm twenty-one years old. I'm a student at Fordham University and you're pursuing a major in Political Science. Ever since I came to college, I've always been focused on my studies, I've worked very hard to get into Fordham and need to maintain a certain GPA to continue getting my scholarship money to enable me to continue, the second being I need to be able to get scholarships to go on and further my education.

 

However, today is the last day of my junior year of undergrad and I've just taken my final exam, I'm thrilled, and feel like I've passed all my classes with flying colors and I could not be more ecstatic. All I want to do now is sleep, maybe watch some netflix, but my roommate, James Lincoln Avery,  insists I accompany her to the party to make sure she gets home safe since she plans on drinking. I loathe the idea, but she did help me out studying for my final in The Anthropology of Food. So, I accompany her to the party and watch her have a good time and hang out on the outskirts of the party.

 

Suddenly, a guy comes up to me. I dismiss him at first, but he made a comment about my favorite band, Maroon 5, which kind of catches my interest. He's got Black Hair and Brown Eyes and introduces themselves as Dashiell Dudley Verhoeven, they're eighteen years old. I start talking to Dashiell and find out about him, he is apparently a legacy of the university, went to prep schools his whole life, has traveled the world with his bourgeois family and while that would usually make me feel a bit of a chip on my shoulder, for some reason, it doesn't with Dash, for some reason. I find him charming. I also find out that Dashiell is majoring in Philosophy and the way Dashspeak about his major so passionately it entices me. We talk for hours before James stumbles over. Realizing I need to get her home, but not wanting the conversation with Dashiell  to end, so we exchange numbers and I promise to call him later. I leave with James and head back to my dorm, feeling much happier than when I'd arrived at the party.

 

I met my husband ten years ago at that silly college party, and as much as I disliked the party scene in college, I can't help but look back on that night fondly.  Ever since that night, Dash and I started dating.  We graduated from Fordham, and Dash ended up working for his family's company while I went right into Law School at Columbia - Since we were both in New York, we continued to date throughout our 20's.  Eventually, Dash completed his internship with his family, and attended graduate school at Yale University, where he got his PHD in Philosophy and finished off a degree in pedagogy.  We had to commute from NYC to New Haven  to see each other, but it was worth it.  I eventually graduated from Columbia and moved to New Haven to be with Dashiell.  Once I completed my bar exam and passed it with New York, D.C, Connecticut, Florida and New Jersey under my belt, I became an Attorney at a practice about ten miles away from Dash's and my apartment.  Dash graduated and got a job as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Philosophy in the Philosophy Departments at Yale University and Wesleyan at the undergraduate levels.

 

Once we settled into our careers, we got married.  It was a small ceremony held at a quaint chapel outside New Haven in the winter.  Dashiell and I decided to honeymoon in a few places over the course of three weeks during the winter break of college - Nice, France; Santorini, Greece and Tokyo, Japan. We used the lump sum of money that Dashiell's parents had gifted us for the wedding invested the money we saved into buying a four-bedroom house together, since we planned on having kids soon after getting married.

 

Dashiell and I started trying to conceive soon after getting married, but a year passed, and we still had no luck getting pregnant.  We visited a fertility doctor, who reported that Dashiell had a low sperm count, and I had an undiagnosed case of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, making it nearly impossible for us to have a biological child together.  Dashiell and I were stunned and devastated.  We spent a few months going over the facts and trying to think of a solution.  As an only child, I wanted my kids to have many siblings that they could count on, since Dashiell has a load of siblings and loves being a part of a big family.

 

Six months after the news, Dashiell and I made the decision to visit an adoption agency.  We were matched with a birth mother, Ashley Emma-Mary Mars,  who lived in rural Pennsylvania.  She was 16 and had gotten pregnant accidentally.  We met with her a few times and agreed to pay for her medical bills.  The adoption agency informed us a few months into the pregnancy that we would be the parents of a little girl. Dash and I had agreed that we would be fine with either gender, but we were both so excited to have a daughter.

 

Dashiell and I spent the next few months converting one of our spare bedrooms into a nursery for our daughter.  Finally, the day of delivery arrived. Ashley went into labor, and we waited for hours at the hospital until finally we received news that she had been born.  Our daughter weighed seven pounds and nine ounces and was twenty-three inches long.  She had Blonde Hair and Green eyes.  Ashley signed away her rights without ever meeting her.  We took her home the next day and named her Poppy Genevieve Verhoeven.

 

My mother, Helen Jane Larsen (née Aske), moved to New Haven shortly after Poppy was born to help us raise her, since Dash and I had such demanding jobs.  Juggling motherhood and being promoted to senior partner at my law firm was challenging, but Poppy's smile motivated us through the challenges we faced as new parents.

 

Around Poppy's first birthday, Dashiell, Poppy, and I flew to Westchester, NY for the annual Verhoeven family reunion.  We stayed at Dashiell's childhood house where his parents, Genevieve Rosamund (née Montgomery) and Archibald Josiah Verhoeven, still live. Dashiell is the youngest of five kids.  The eldest Verhoeven child is Josiah Amos Verhoeven, who is 40.  He graduated from Princeton with a degree in economics and is now an economics professor at Cornell.  He is married to Elsie Clementine Verhoeven (née Hapstall), a stay-at-home mother, and they have eight kids: Jonas Philip (14), Celia Gabriella (14), Sophia Mabel (11), Ella Beatrice (9), Anna Grace (8), Graham Forrest (5), Hugh Christian (3) and Harrison Clay (3).

 

The second Verhoeven child is Clarissa Matilda Waldorf (née Verhoeven), who is 38.  She graduated from Stanford University with a degree in mathematics and now works for Google in Silicon Valley, CA.  Her husband's name is Otto Lionel Waldorf .  He is a plastic surgeon. Clarissa and Otto have three kids: Henry Miles (7), Chloe Eloise (5) and Elias Jack (2)

 

The third Verhoeven child is Humphrey Barnabas Verhoeven.  He is 35 and is married to Louise Isa Verhoeven (née Billings).  Humphrey and Lulu have three children: Julian Oscar (10), Barnaby Cole (4), and Daisy Faith (0).  Humphrey went to Georgetown where he majored in biology and was on a pre-med track.  He is now a Cardiologist and lives with Lulu, a stock analyst, in New York City, New York.

 

The fourth Verhoeven child is Evangeline Cecily Bancroft (née Verhoeven; formerly Carrington), age 34.  She has been married twice, the first time to Harry Walter Carrington, with whom she had her daughter, Sasha Zoe Carrington (12).  Sasha spends half her time living  in London, England, with Harry, but Sasha still comes to the family reunions to see her mother's side of the family.  Evangeline's wife is Florence Lavinia Bancroft.  They have three children: Florence's daughter - Kitty Rose (15), then twins who are biologically Evangeline's children with a sperm donation from Florence's brother -  George Levi (1), and Frederick Lucas (1). Evangeline met Florence when they both attended the University of Pennsylvania. Evangeline majored in business and is now the CEO of a pharmaceutical company based in New York City, New York.  She met Florence  through work (she is the public relations executive for the same company).

 

With around thirty people at the reunion, there were plenty of people to talk to, and it was fun watching all the kids play together.  Dashiell  and I fondly imagined Poppy  joining in the fun and games when she's old enough.  I received plenty of child-rearing advice from all of Dash's siblings and their spouses, not to mention my in-laws, which was irksome at times, but I knew their intentions were kind and sincere.  One evening, Josiah asked me if Dashiell and I planned on having more children, or if we were just having Poppy.  I told him that we would be interested in adopting again, but that we didn't have any concrete plans to adopt any time soon.  Dashiell didn't ask anything else, but his question stuck with me for the rest of the week.

 

Dashiell, Poppy, and I finally returned home.  After putting Puppy to bed one night, Dash brought up the idea of international adoption, which we had considered before adopting Poppy.  We agreed that since it can be a two to four year process, we should put in a request at the adoption agency now.  The next day, I called our agent, Talitha Ziva Johnson, who told me the countries they were currently in contact with.  We talked about Poppy, and she said that she would update us if any matches were found.  I hung up the phone feeling giddy about the prospect of having another child.

 

That weekend, Dashiell and I left Poppy at home with my mother so that we could go out to dinner.  We hadn't had a real date night since Poppy was born, so it was a refreshing evening for both of us.  We talked about what countries we wanted to adopt from, deciding that Korea, Norway, and Haiti were our top choices.  We eventually decided that Norway was our first choice of country, since Dashiell had recently been doing research in Scandinavian philosophy and found it to be an every day discussion topic in our home.  We thought it was an appropriate homage to Dash's work, so we called Talitha the next day and told her that we were interested in adopting a child from Norway.

 

For the next few months, we had our home inspected and filled out countless forms.  During the summer, we decided to take a weekend trip to Sesame Place in Langhorne, PA. Poppy loved meeting all of the Sesame Street characters, since Sesame Street was her favorite show.

 

The months pass, and we keep in touch with Talitha, who informs us that there are no suitable matches for us yet.  Although we are disappointed by this, we get into a happy and stable routine with Poppy and rely on my mom's help less and less.  For her third birthday, Dash and I decided to throw a party for our daughter.  She asked for a Superhero themed party, since she adores superheroes especially Batman and Captain America.  While shopping for party supplies, I received a call from Talitha who told me that there was a match for us!  I rushed home and called Dashiell, who hurried home as well.  We received a file from Talitha with pictures of newborn boy/girl twins from Bergen, Norway.  We fell in love with them immediately.

 

Poppy was excited about the news of having a little brother and sister.  The day after her birthday party, Dashiell and I dropped her off at my in-law's house and caught a flight to Oslo and then drove to Bergen where we had five days to spend with our future son and daughter.  We loved every minute that we spent with them and knew that they was the perfect match for our family.  He had Blonde Hair and Blue Eyes and She had Blonde Hair and Bluel Eyes  as well. We were sad to part with them, but we gave them  kisses goodbye and told them that we would see them soon.  

 

Dashiell and I decorated our second spare bedroom, creating a beautiful nursery for our twins.  Finally, another month passed, and we left Poppy with Humphrey, Louise and their kids while we flew to Norway again, this time to bring our little darlings home for good.  We named them Wesley "Wes" Larsen Verhoeen and Serena Daphne Verhoeven.

 

 

It has been two years since we welcomed Wes and Serena into our family and things have been going well, we're currently in waiting for our next adoption from South Korea, which we settled the paper work on about six months ago. However, before that, we moved the family into a new home considering our growing family we knew we would need a little more space, thankfully Dashiell  got a promotion the previous year to - Full-time Professor of Philosophy at Yale University - which has increased our house revenue by tenfold. Which helped, we ended up moving to a new house, which is stunning - It's in a really lovely neighborhood full of families, it's about a half hour commute from where I work and two hours from Yale University making the commute not bad, it's got about seven bedrooms, so we set up two guest bedrooms, we made one room into a luxury master for ourselves, Poppy requested a beautiful princess room, a toon themed bedroom for Wes, a pink textile themed room for Serena, then we left one room empty to be made up when we hear back from the adoption agency - the house also has, a built in playroom for the kids, a luxury kitchen and we designed a lofting library room. It's a perfect home for us all.

 

It's late at night and I'm currently organizing some files for work and are surprised when the phone rings and I see its our case worker, Talitha, as she had already spoken to you earlier today to once more inform us that we were still on the waiting list to be matched up with a child, and it was looking like no movement would be coming soon at all. I pick up the phone to answer and ask Talitha why she's calling so late and she informs me she's got some interesting news and a proposal for Dash and I and it appears that the birth mother of Poppy has fallen pregnant again which was a huge blow for her, she's in college and trying to make the most of her life. Once more she's looking to adopt out her baby, and she wanted to ask Dashiell and I first since the baby would be Poppy's half sibling and she knows it would go to a good home if we both raised the baby. I'm stunned. I ask if I have time to think about the decision before giving an answer, I need to talk to Dash and discuss it before we make any major decisions. Talitha says that's fine, but informs me the quicker the better in circumstances like this so Ashley would be able to have more time to find a different family if we pick not to adopt her baby. I inform Talitha that I understand and end the conversation.

 

I finish my work and then a few hours later, Dashiell comes home and he just wants to go to bed, but I inform him and I need to talk. I sit down in our living room with Dashiell and inform him about the situation at hand, how Ashley is pregnant again and would like our family to adopt the baby. At first Dash  is as shocked as I was, but he brings up how we both want a big family. I  agree and bring up all the empty space in our new large home. We both decide to sleep on it and head to bed

 

The next morning as we're bringing our kids to school and pre-school for the day, I bring up the idea of if they might like a new brother or sister and they respond individually. Wes and Serena don't seem to care too much about it, but Poppy is extremely excited about being a big sister again, and this make me feel pretty good, glad there are no negative feelings. I drop all the kids off and think about what my children said and head off to work, I have a pretty good day and my co-worker, Annaliese Natalia Leating, even brings in her new baby - Christophe, and I coo over him, he's absolutely adorable and it makes my heart yearn for another child. Later that day, when I go home, Dashiell and I seem to both agree, we'd like to adopt Ashley's baby. We call back our social worker and tell her that we would like to adopt the baby and she is more than pleased to hear it and we start up the process for it once more, signing things, agreeing to pay for certain costs and such.

 

Only a few months later I speak with Ashley to see how she is doing and how schooling is going for her, and its good, thankfully it seems her pregnancy will be in its latent months over the summer and it won't affect her school work, she also informs me that she's found out the baby's gender that day and the baby is a - A Boy. I'm thrilled and quickly send off a text to Dashiell to let him know before wishing Ashley well and heading off my lunch break to get back to work.

 

When I get home that day I surprise my mother, Helen, with the news that she'll be a grandmother again and of course she's thrilled. Then I inform the children who still don't entirely all seem so sure, but when I explain that they can help me decorate the room we had previously left bare. Wes and Serena are very excited, but oddly Poppy now seems a little more hesitant so I try and get her involved, but soon enough the nursery is done and looks fantastic. Poppy, Wes and Serena now seem excited, especially Poppy.

 

As the pregnancy progresses, its time to start thinking about names and Dashiell and I talk back and forth having some trouble, but in the end we find some names we like and can agree on for the baby's first name, Elliot, but have trouble finding a matching middle name, but decide to leave it be for now. It'll come to us later and its not worth fighting over with Dash.

 

Of course, nothing can go as expected and on a hot, July afternoon, Ashley goes into labor three weeks early and our baby arrives! He's 6 pounds and 2 ounces and 17 inches long. This time both Dashiell and I were in the delivery room for the birth and it was magical, a little scary, but magical. Our children are in the waiting room with my mother, Helen, and Dash's parents - Genevieve and Archiband, We're all very excited to meet their new family member, and so I bring out our Black Haired and Hazel Eyed bundle of joy and finally express their full name - Elliot Asher Verhoeven. We decided to give him a middle name after Ashley since she truly has given us such gifts in Poppy and Elliot. As I see Elliot  swaddled in his blanket with my mother holding him while Poppy, Wes and Serena watch them with wide, excited eyes I could not find myself ever feeling this happy before and I'm so grateful.

 

It's been a year since we brought home Elliot and things have been great, I love seeing my kids together, playing and just being together. As an only child, I found myself quite lonely growing up and seeing Poppy, Wes, Serena and Elliot all together it makes my heart feel warm. It also gives me major headaches when they fight sometimes, but that's just part of the territory. One thing I also missed greatly when I was  growing up was a pet, my family had a dog when I was very little, but I never really grew up with a pet and I want that for my kids. Dashiell agrees having been raised with cats, dogs and ferrets his whole life. We decide the most amiable pet would probably be a Dog.

 

After picking which type of animal we think would be a good fit for your family, Dash and I go over a list of breeds, we take some votes from our friends and other family members, and end up picking Siberian Huskey. We find a reputable breeder and get on the wait list for their upcoming litter of puppies. Its three months later and we hear back, there is a little female puppy with our name on it if we're ready. Of course we are! We bring the little one home and realize we forgot one very important thing - a name! We show off the little new family member to the kids and Dashiell, every one of us submit a name into a hat - your youngest child with a little help from Dashiell - I suggested the name Angelou, Dash suggested Georgia, Poppy suggested Hermione, Wes suggests Elmo, Serena suggests Lyra and Elliot suggests Pepper. Once they're all written down I put them in a hat, shake it and pick one name - Serena's name gets picked and thus our new family member is Lyra!

 

Soon enough, our new little fluff is settled and its nice, they're good for helping teach the kids some responsibility as they all have little chores to help out with Lyra. Plus they're cute as can be and have gained your instagram account an odd dozen or so new followers who love pictures of your adorable puppy.

 

A few weeks after we get our pet, we finally get a call from Talitha that our papers have gone through to South Korea and we've been given a match! We've been matched with a Newborn Baby Girl, from the email accompanying the call, Dash and I see that the little one has Black Hair and Almond Eyes. We're instantly awestruck and in love. We read through everything and agree, this little one is just meant to be a part of your family.

 

Thankfully, a month later, its summer vacation and so we leave Poppy, Wes, Serena and Elliot and Lyra with Clarissa, Otto and their kids for two weeks while we head off to South Korea to go meet our newest child for the first time in their country and we have an amazing time with them, spending some time alone, but also partaking in some cultural activities related to their culture heritage. Such as making traditional handicrafts, Korean cooking classes, ceramic making, and programs to help us experience the culture of Korea’s royal palaces, It hurts to leave them, but I hug her tight and promise I'll be back for her soon. We come back home and spend a few days with Dashiell and I before Clarissa and Otto bring our kids and pet back home. I hug them all and show them pictures of our time with their new sister who will be coming home very soon. We all get together and take down one of the guest rooms and make it into a new nursery for her.

 

In fact, its only a month later in August that we fly back to South Korea to pick up our child since overcrowding and needed space we  have to just get in and out, its a fast and messy four day procedure, but when we arrive to the airport to see all of our family, my mother, Dash's parents, Josiah and Elsie with Jonas, Celia, Sophia, Ella, Anna, Graham, Hugh and Harrison; Clarissa and Otto with Henry, Chloe and Elias; Humphrey and Lulu with Julian, Barnaby and Daisy, Evangeline and Florence with Kitty, Sasha, George and Frederick - with Poppy, Wes, Serena and Elliot with banners welcoming the family home as  we walk over and introduce them now all in person to Brooke Lorna Verhoeven the newest member of the family.

 

It's been about two years since we welcomed Brooke into our family. Unfortunately, tragedy has struck. As surprising as it is, about two years ago I reconnected with James, my college roommate, surprisingly at a mommy and me class, and the two of us became friends, James had matured a lot since college, apparently it was a new thing since she had turned her life around after getting pregnant on a one night stand and having her, Dante Gannon Avery, who is honestly one of the most adorable children with his cherubic cheeks, Black Hair and Blue Eyes. We started having play dates with our kids - Dante and Elliot became the best of friends - and actually gotten along quite so much so that now that she and her boyfriend, Owen Madison Sterling,  are expecting a baby and she has asked Dash and I to be the god parents and we couldn't be happier, sadly something went wrong. Only a few months after their daughter, Avery Evangeline Sterling was born with the most precious downy locks of Brown Hair and big , soft Green Eye - James and Owen and are a part of a tragic car accident and die on impact. Thankfully, though for small favors, Dante and Avery were at home that night with a babysitter and are fine.

 

The news devastates me when I get the call the night after, and what is even more shocking is that we find out that Dashiell and I have been listed in their will to inherit not only a large lump some of money, as well as managing trusts for both of their children, but they would like Dash and I to be the guardians of their children and adopt them. James was an only child of a single father who passed away during our time in college and Owen was the only child of parents, William Madison Sterling and Evangeline Alexandra Sterling, who are quite old now and are in no shape to take on a three year old and a three month old full time.

 

While I am stunned at first, we both know there is no one else out there to take in these children, but the two of us. If we decline they will end up in the foster system, will probably end up being separated from one another, it's not a pretty picture. Their best chance at remaining together and being able to have a relationship with their grandparents is Dashiell and I. We already adore and love Dante from spending time with them and our heart breaks at the idea of saying no to him and so after taking another night talking with Dashiell, We both decide to go through with it and adopt them.

 

Most of the paper work is set up and we have Talitha look over it just to make sure everything is correct in the paper work before signing it. Dante and Avery are currently spending the weekend with their grandparents while Dashiell and I set up a room for them - we turn over a spare room we had been using for storage  and then set up a shared room for them - it actually came out quite cute considering how much of a rush and little time we had it coming together . As soon as its done we call William and Evangeline, and arrange to pick Dante and Avery up from them.

 

Dashiell and I bring them home and they're quiet at first, but Brooke gives Dates a big hug and takes them over to play some games with Poppy, Wes, Serena and Elliot, and it makes me happy to see how intuitive my kids are at cheering Dante up while I rock and care for Avery and call up my mother, Helen, and inform her of what is going on and asking her to come stay with us for a few days to help out with getting everything settled. My mother agrees and doesn't mind at all, feeling saddened beyond belief for the poor kids. It's rough at first, Dante is constantly asking for his mommy and daddy and has some nightmares and the little one still does not sleep through the night, thankfully my mother's help makes it better the first few weeks and it becomes routine for Dashiell and I and we settle in. Now, we couldn't imagine our life without them both living with us. Dashiell and I decide to make everything more official by hyphenating Dante's and Avery's  last names with our own, officially making them Dante Avery-Verhoeven and Avery Sterling-Verhoeven. That way they are a part of our family without loosing their old family.

 

Three short months later and it seems as if Dante and Avery have always been a part of our family. They fit into our daily life and its like they have always been there with us. What surprises us is when you get a call from Talitha, things had been so busy that we had forgotten that before you'd even taken Dante and Avery in we had been looking into fostering and or adopting another child domestically. There is a child in need of a placement, a little boy, who has Blonde Hair and Brown Eyes and was left at a fire station, there is no other information on him, but a doctor calculated a close to approximate age as just about one year old.

 

Dashiell and I feel stressed about the idea, but Talitha explains that we are the fourth person she's called and the last person on her list before the child will have to be sent to a home. We agree to take the little one in just for now, until they can find another place to stay. For now though, they need a name, so Dashiell and I use some names you had considered if we had more children and call them - Jackson Draco - instead of John Doe. As time progress though, its been a month, and the makeshift room we've had for Jackson had become a full on room. They've seemingly settled in and we agreed to foster Jackson instead of just being a continued emergency placement.

 

 

It's been three years since we welcomed home our last child and since then we have officially adopted, Jackson, who  you were previously fostering. Things have been fantastic and recently you retired from your job - you enjoyed the job a lot, but you wanted to do something else. You decided to open your own business - an LSAT prep industry working in lower income YMCs and other recreational centers to help the impoverished improve their schooling opportunities . Opening your own business has allowed you more time at home, to spend with your kids and to get them involved with your business to help teach them a good work ethic and skills for themselves.

 

Things have been good with the running of your business, taking time with your children and even playing with Lyra more often. You feel more carefree and at home and with your kids getting older - you can't help wanting to hold another baby in your arms. You speak to Dashiell about it and they feel similarly about the whole thing - so you call Talitha and let them know you'd like to be put on the list and that by the and of the week you'll have an updated baby book ready by the end of the week. Things progress amiably and the older kids help make it and everything. It's a fun family bonding experience for you all and once its done you send it off to Talitha so she can set it up.

 

In fact things have been going so well, and with the expansion of your family and large income increase thanks to how well your business has been doing you decide to buy the home for sale next to your own. You bulldoze the home and have your family move into a two-story townhouse for 2 months. During this time you hire a construction crew and have them expand upon your property and merge things expanding upon your home - adding 7 bed rooms to our home, doubling the bedrooms we currently have, as well as expanding upon our home adding several bathrooms, adding a library, upgrading the kitchen even more, making a small guest house on the property, a theater, a game room, and expanding the playroom.

 

Once the construction is done and you move in you're honestly in-love and so are the kids, they're all happy to have their own rooms and not be so cramped as it was at the temporary housing while you were waiting for the construction to be done. The even better news is just a few weeks after moving back in you get a call from Talitha. She's found you guys a match! A young woman who is in the middle of attending law school, she and her now ex-boyfriend got pregnant and while they had thought about keeping them at first realized they could barely keep a relationship working let alone take care of two - yes two - babies. The woman is expecting twins. However, before she agrees to finalize anything she would like to meet you and Dash to see if she feels as comfortable with you as she did when reading your family book.

 

A week later you meet her - Constance Schuyler Llywellyn - and she's amazing. A well put together young woman, you talk for awhile and find some common ground, a love for cooking and Chuacer, which helps ease you all into conversation. It's much different then when you dealt with Ashley - it seems Constance has a plan for her life and knows what she wants to do and is working for it which impresses you and Dash quite a lot.  After you guys speak for a few hours, Constance admits she feels rather confident with having her children be adopted into your family. She feels that you two are loving an caring people and in the photo book your family looks happy and you're doing all these fantastic things which is what she wants for her babies. The three of you all agree on wanting this and the only thing Constance would like you to do is pay for health care costs, nothing more and that is fine so you call up Talitha and they agree to work on a contract for you all to sign soon. You say your goodbyes and head back home to your kids and are excited to see them, you all have a family movie night and settle in.

 

A few days later Talitha faxes over the contract to you and in it is everything you discussed with Constance, you'll pay for her pregnancy related medical costs and in addition she would like a nearly closed adoption - she's just like yearly updates on their birthday with pictures and a letter just talking about them and how they've been doing. As long as no contact is initiated you're happy and this is no hardship to complete for the woman gifting you two precious babies to care for and love. You an Dashiell sign the contract and move on from their and inform the kids they'll be getting not just one, but two more little siblings - Wes is a little nervous about having more siblings but the other kids are plenty excited. Since Brooke  seems to be the most excited, you pair her and Wes up in helping getting things ready for the arrival of the babies.

 

A month later you get an excited call from, Talitha, as Constance visited the doctor that day and found out that you will be expecting fraternal twin boys and you're thrilled. Talitha promises to mail you the pictures of the sonograms and everything else from the doctor's visit to keep you informed. 

 

Now that you know the gender of the twins, you and the family take one of the guest rooms you have no and change it into a nursery for them. For now they'll share to make life a little easier for you and Dashiell when you have to do late night feedings and when they're a little older you'll give them rooms of their own.  The new nursery.

 

The next four months pass in a flurry and you get a call from Talitha that Constance has started labor before your planned c-section date and so she's going to the hospital now to do it. You frantically call up all your family, your mother rushes over to watch the kids while you and Dashiell head off to the hospital. Constance doesn't want you guys in the room and you respect that, waiting in the lounge as the hours pass, but soon enough Talitha comes out to inform you both babies are happy and health - ten fingers and ten toes. The oldest is five pounds and six ounces and eighteen inches long while the younger twin is five pounds even and nineteen inches long. Constance spends an hour with each baby, gifting them hand knitted blankets and hats she made for them before kissing each on the head and handing them to you with tears in her eyes, she thanks you for loving them and asks that you move into a different room so she can rest and you do. Staring at your beautiful little ones. Baby A has Black Hair and Blue Eyes while Baby B also has Brown Hair and Hazel Eyes and as you look at them you know the names you picked fit them perfect - Lucian Constantine Llywellyn Verhoeven and Kai Schuyler Llywellyn Verhoeven - and more than that you know they're meant for your family and with them your family finally feels complete. 

 

It's been nine years since we adopted Lucian and Kai and a lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same - since these past nine years I've opened not just one, but two more off shoots of your original business, Law-UP, and Dashiell has retired from his own job to help me run the business and we both enjoy working together and it helps fulfill another part of our relationship that we had never done before. Plus with a lot of things going so well, we're enjoyeing seeing our kids grow up and become more of themselves.

 

However, growing up at times comes with certain difficulties and lately some of the children have been having a few problems with their behavior and school.

 

Poppy had gotten pregnant from a one night stand with a stranger while on spring break, she has no idea who got her pregnant, and well, we've spent a long few hours discussing what Poppy would like, every option. She doesn't feel comfortable with an abortion and we talked about adoption, but Poppy feels like she's in a really stable place, she only lives a few hours away in apartment housing by Yale University, where she is attending school and she's working as a tutor, thankfully it would seem by the time she'll be ready to have her baby, it'll be just the start of winter break, she'll have two months off to be used to being a mother and finding a working schedule, and of course Dash and I intend to support her in every way. So, Poppy plans to keep her baby, we know it'll be a struggle, but we're going to help.

 

Serena has been starting fights in school, at first we had no idea why, speaking to her only seemed to get more aggression and her lashing out, however with some tentative prying from her favorite Auntie Clarissa informs us that quite a few kids at school have been bullying her and our other kids in the high school about being adopted freaks.

 

Dante's and Avery's grades have been slipping for the past few months, we think it may have to do with some of the bullying going on for Dante, though, we're not sure what's causing the issue for Avery, but we plan to look into it further.

 

Lucian has an attitude problem recently and we think it might just be some growing pains, adjustments - he knows Wes and Serena are leaving soon for college and he threw a fit at the going away party we recently held for the whole family. We're hoping with some through sit down explanations and time outs this might work out though for the better.

 

Wes, Elliot, Brooke, Jackson and Kai have all thankfully been fine. No problems, no issues - they're all doing fine in school, enjoying activities and just being happy kids.

 

With all of this happening at once, Dash and I have decidedset forth a few plans to help fix the situation for everyone involved, to have the kids switch out of their schools into a private one, Arlington Academy which features grades pre-k to 12th, this way they will be away from any previous bad influence or place hat might be giving the kids trouble, and hope that perhaps a change of pace will help the children to settle down and become a bit happier.

 

We also have Poppy leave her current apartment and move into one that is closer to where out family resides and we also arrange for Poppy, Serena, Dante, Avery and Lucian to all see a therapist once a week in Serena, Dante, Avery and Lucian's case and once every other week for Poppy. We're hoping with someone impartial to talk to, they can feel safe to work though their issues.

 

Once the switch happens and the children have started school again, we notice that the children's problems are....

 

Poppy's thankfully doing amazing, while we had some fear about how she would fare with pregnancy, school, her job - well, it seems that being closer to home, having support and someone impartial to talk to in her therapist, Doctor Rogers, has really helped. She's graduated a semester early just in time for her to be off to welcome our precious first grandson, Greyson Peregrine Verhoeven who is just stunning and adorable with cherubic big cheeks which are rosy red complimented with wisps of Blonde Hair and big Blue Eyes. Currently, Poppy is unemployed, but she's looking at some job opportunities or graduate school options. For now, she's adjusting and is a fantastic mom, just like I knew she would be.

 

Serena's been improving in her issues, while the new school situation has definitely helped, there are still some problems with fighting, there's only been two since the transfer - again with other girls from her old school. We've brought this up with her therapist, Doctor Ellis, who agrees while some progress is being made, the anger about the situation and her own mixed feelings about being given up have come into play, we know its a long road, but thankfully - Serena is staying local for college and will be continuing to see Doctor Ellis and hopefully continue to improve and end all the fighting.

 

Dante has finally come clean about what was bothering, his own dealings with his therapist, Doctor Jung, has proven to be very fruitful. A lot of the reasons Dante was having his grades go down was because he had been being bullied about being adopted and then, well, in addition he had some unresolved issues about his mother's death and how he has some memories of her, misses her and his step-father and while he knows we are his parents and love him dearly, something just has always felt like it was missing. We agree to continue therapy so he can talk it out and we also agree to have him, and Avery, come and visit their parents graves. Dante's back to being an A+ student and he's even joined the debate team and baseball team.

 

Avery has been improving on her grades, while not entirely where she had been before Avery has still been skipping here and there and struggling, Doctor Jung, thinks perhaps that it might have to do with some issues Avery has been feeling about her parents death as well as now that she's getting older and her siblings are leaving she's fearful something bad will happen to them, or they'll stop being for her, while the issues are still at hand, Doctor Jung thinks with continued therapy and some more family bonding time things will hopefully continue to improve, we've set up a weekly family meeting for those of us still in the house, a movie night, and once a month for the whole family together to go somewhere or do something.

 

Lucian has also been improving with attitude problems and hasn't thrown a temper tantrum in a full on month. Doctor Satir believes it might just be some growing pains and suggest some more individualized time to help, and so we decide to initiate a day each month for each of our children where they to pick an activity and we'll go do it - within reason of course - and give them a day of just our attention. 

 

Wes, Elliot, Brooke and Kai have all continued to be fine, healthy, happy and well-adjusted. All of them are puttering along, Wes has gotten into Columbia and plans to attend in the coming fall, Elliot has started to look at colleges and is hoping to either follow Wes to Columbia or go to California to attend UCLA, Berkley or he is also considering Yale. Brooke is just enjoying being in high school, she's made lots of new friend's on the varsity volleyball team and is thinking about even starting a cooking/baking themed club at the school since Brooke's recently really been enjoying how to bake from scratch. Kai is doing fine, putting along though he is sad to see his twin upset sometimes, recently Kai has taken up tennis and is enjoying it quite a bit.

 

On the other hand, Jackson, though, well, he's not doing as alright. It would seem maybe moving him to this new school may not have been the best choice for him. He's not done something wrong, in a sense, we've always known he's a handsome boy, athletic and smart, leading on the lacrosse and swim teams. It's no surprise that he wound up with girls - the thing is he got into it too fast and now he and his now girlfriend, Danielle Lydia Hale, are pregnant. They're not just pregnant, but expecting twin girls. We're kind of stunned by it, but we've been speaking Mister and Misses Hale and we both agree that we'll support what the kids decision is, is their choice and we respect them for it and we will support them. We have decided since we have more room, that Danielle will move in with us and we've given her her own room in the house and turned the room next to it into a nursery for the girls, Nursery, and we enroll them in serious classes to help with raising the babies as per their choice. Sure enough, a few months later and our beautiful granddaughters are born healthy and perfect - Talia Sloane Verhoeven-Hale with Blonde Hair and Green Eyes, and Cornelia Lorelei Verhoeven-Hale with Red Hair and Brown Eyes. An good mix of their parents, Jackson with Blonde Hair and Brown Eyes and then Danielle with Red Hair and Hazel Eyes.

 

While we weren't expecting grandchildren so early, we love the newest addition to the family.

 

_______________________________________________

 

 

The Verhoeven Family

 

DW: Flora Lorna Verhoeven (nee Larsen) [53] [Brown Hair & Brown Eyes] [Attorney]

DH: Dashiell Dudley Verhoeven [50] [Black Hair & Brown Eyes] [Philosophy Professor]

 

DAD1: Poppy Genevieve Verhoeven [20] [Blonde Hair & Green Eyes]

(Adopted Domestically; birth mother: Ashley Mars)

DAS1: Wesley "Wes" Larsen Verhoeven [18] [Blonde Hair & Blue Eyes]

(Adopted from Norway; twin brother of Serena)

DAD2: Serena Daphne Verhoeven [18] [Blonde Hair & Blue Eyes]

(Adopted from Norway; twin sister of Wes)

DAS2: Elliot Asher Verhoeven [16] [Black Hair & Hazel Eyes]

(Adopted Domestically; birth mother: Ashley Mars)

DAS3: Dante Gannon Avery-Verhoeven [16] [Black Hair & Blue Eyes]

(Guardian Adoption; son of James Avery-Sterling)

DAD3: Brooke Lorna Verhoeven [15] [Black Hair & Almond Eyes]

(Adopted from South Korean)

DAS4: Jackson Draco Verhoeven [14] [Blonde Hair & Brown Eyes]

(Adopted Domestically; birth parents unknown)

DAD4: Avery Evangeline Sterling-Verhoeven [13] [Brown Hair & Green Eyes]

(Guardian Adoption; daughter of James and Owen Sterling)

DAS5: Lucian Constantine Llywellyn Verhoeven [9] [Black Hair & Blue Eyes]

(Adopted Domestically; birth mother: Constance Llywellyn; twin brother of Kai)

DAS6: Kai Schuyler Llywellyn Verhoeven [9] [Brown Hair & Hazel Eyes]

(Adopted Domestically; birth mother: Constance Llywellyn; twin brother of Lucian)

 

Dog: Lyra [13, Siberian Huskey]

 

Flora and Dashiell Verhoeven; with Poppy, Wes, SerenaElliot, Dante, Brooke, Jackson, Avery, Lucian & Kai + Lyra

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

The Verhoeven Family

 

DAD1: Poppy Genevieve Verhoeven [20] [Blonde Hair & Green Eyes] [Yale Graduate]

 

DS1: Greyson Peregrine Verhoeven [0] [Blonde Hair & Blue Eyes]

 

Poppy Verhoeven; with Greyson

 

--------------------

 

The Verhoeven/Hale Family

 

DAS4: Jackson Draco Verhoeven [14] [Blonde Hair & Brown Eyes]

DGF: Danielle Lydia Hale [15] [Red Hair & Hazel Eyes]

 

DD1: Talia Sloane Verhoeven-Hale [0] [Blonde Hair & Green Eyes]

(Twin Sister of Cornelia)

DD2: Cornelia Lorelei Verhoeven-Hale [0] [Red Hair & Brown Eyes]

(Twin Sister of Talia)

 

Jackson Verhoeven and Danielle Hale; with Talia & Cornelia

 

 



#7 Puppylover12397

Puppylover12397

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Posted 21 March 2016 - 11:11 AM

My name is Poppy Esme Rowena Storstrand, I have Brown Hair and Brown Eyes and I'm twenty years old. I'm a student at Brown University and you're pursuing a major in History. Ever since I came to college, I've always been focused on my studies, I've worked very hard to get into Brown and need to maintain a certain GPA to continue getting my scholarship money to enable me to continue, the second being I need to be able to get scholarships to go on and further my education.

 

However, today is the last day of my junior year of undergrad and I've just taken my final exam, I'm thrilled, and feel like I've passed all my classes with flying colors and I could not be more ecstatic. All I want to do now is sleep, maybe watch some netflix, but my roommate, Casey Sawyer Dylan,  insists I accompany her to the party to make sure she gets home safe since she plans on drinking. I loathe the idea, but she did help me out studying for my final in Logic. So, I accompany her to the party and watch her have a good time and hang out on the outskirts of the party.

 

Suddenly, a girl comes up to me. I dismiss her at first, but she made a funny joke about Trump's campaign, which kind of catches my interest. She's got Brown Hair and Hazel Eyes and introduces themselves as Cornelia Genevieve Vervloet, they're nineteen years old. I start talking to Cornelia and find out about her, she is apparently a legacy of the university, went to prep schools her whole life, has traveled the world with her bourgeois family and while that would usually make me feel a bit of a chip on my shoulder, for some reason, it doesn't with Cornelia, for some reason. I find her  charming. I also find out that Cornelia is majoring in Political Science and the way Cornelia speak about her major so passionately it entices me. We talk for hours before Casey  stumbles over. Realizing I need to get her home, but not wanting the conversation with Cornelia  to end, so we exchange numbers and I promise to call her later. I leave with Casey and head back to my dorm, feeling much happier than when I'd arrived at the party.

 

 

I met my wife ten years ago at that silly college party, and as much as I disliked the party scene in college, I can't help but look back on that night fondly.  Ever since that night, Cornelia and I started dating.  We graduated from Brown, and Cornelia ends up deciding to attend Law School at Columbia while I attended NYU to do a PHD program in History and in pedagogy, of course we moved to NYC together and shared an apartment in the Upper East Side that belonged to Cornelia'a family, we enjoyed being young and in our twenties together, living the good life in love and it was honestly magical. By the end of it all, Cornelia graduated law school and got a position as an entry level Lawyer at Barden, Vervloet & Associates while I started working at Barnard College, Fordham University and St. Johns's University as a Visiting Assistant Professor of History.

 

Once we settled into our careers, we got married.  It was actually quite the large affair, mostly on Cornelia's side. I had a few childhood friends and college friends, my mother and then co-workers, but Cornelia well, she had her parents, siblings, the in-laws on all sides, her friends, all the girls from her old private high school, family friends and then her work colleagues.  We rented out a huge hotel with a large ballroom, it was catered by a celebrity chef and pastry chef, we had the the ceremony inside on a breezy, fall day. It was honestly a wonderful event even though I can only remember some of the people I had met. There were hundreds. Cornelia decided to take my last name as Afterwards, Cornelia and I decided to honeymoon in a few places over the course of three weeks during the winter break of college - Kauai, Hawaii; Reykjavik, Iceland and Amsterdam, The Netherlands. After our fun was said and done we used the lump sum of money that Cornelia's parents had gifted us for the wedding into buying a five-bedroom house together in Westchester County since we planned on having kids soon after getting married. However, there does seem to be something missing. The pitter-patter of little feet. So, Cornelia and I decide to start trying for a family, we spend two years trying and failing to get pregnant with the help of donor sperm, but nothing happens. No pregnancy.

 

 We visited a fertility doctor, who reported that a previously undiagnosed case of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome in myself and Endometriosis in Cornelia. Cornelia and I were stunned and devastated.  We spent a few months going over the facts and trying to think of a solution.  As an only child, I wanted my kids to have many siblings that they could count on, since Cornelia has a load of siblings and loves being a part of a big family.

 

Four months after the news, Cornelia and I made the decision to visit an adoption agency.  It took a few visits, making a book about our lives, but not too long after we were matched with a birth mother, Jennifer Emily Altair,  who lived in rural South Dakota.  She was 16 and had gotten pregnant accidentally.  We met with her a few times and agreed to pay for her medical bills, some bills related to pregnancy such as birthing classes and maternity wear.  The adoption agency informed us a few months into the pregnancy that we would be the parents of a little boy. Cornelia and I had agreed that we would be fine with either gender, but we were both so excited to have a son.

 

Cornelia and I spent the next few months converting one of our spare bedrooms into a nursery for our son.  Finally, the day of delivery arrived. Jennifer went into labor, and we waited for hours at the hospital until finally we received news that he had been born.  Our son weighed seven pounds and nine ounces and was twenty-three inches long.  He had Blonde Hair and Brown Eyes. Jennifer signed away her rights without ever meeting him.  We took him home the next day and named him Stellan Tobias Judah Storstrand since he's our little star.

 

My mother, Barbra Margaret Storstrand, moved to Long Island from Sun Valley, Idaho shortly after Stellan was born to help us raise him, since Cornelia and I had such demanding jobs.  Juggling motherhood and being promoted to a full time professor at Barnard College was challenging, but Stellan's smile motivated us through the challenges we faced as new parents.

 

Around Stellan's first birthday, Cornelia, Stellan, and I flew to Darien, Connecticut  for the annual Vervloet family reunion. We stayed at Cornelia's childhood house where her parents, Eleanor Katherine (née Kennedy) and Byron Nathaniel Vervloet, still live. Cornelia is the youngest of four kids.  The eldest Verhoeven child is Judah Chester Vervloet, who is 43.  He graduated from Yale with a degree in Biochemistry, then went to Harvard Medical school and is a Pediatric Surgeon. Judah and his family reside in Darien, Connnecticut on the same block as Eleanor and Byron. Judah is married to Eloise Josephine Vervloet (née Mars), a stay-at-home mother, and they have five kids: Andrew Jonah (15), Beatrice Eleanor (12), Christian Jonas (9), Daisy Eliza (7) and Ella Josephine (6).

 

The second Vervloet child is Cecelia Beatrice Hearst (née Vervloet), who is 39.  She graduated from Yale University with a degree in Business and now works for Hearst, Walton and Cohen LLC in Manhattan, but they live in Manhasset, NY.  Her husband's name is Arthur August Hearst . He is an attorney at the LLC company where his own father is a head partner. Cecelia and Arthur have six kids: Frederick Nathaniel (13), George Nathan (10), Charlotte Eleanor (10), Margaret Frances (7), Susannah Helen (4) and Alice Francesca (4)

 

The third Vervloet child is Tobias Humphrey Vervloet.  He is 36 and is married to Hazel Violet Vervloet (née Koch).  Tobias ans Hazel have five children: Tobias "Toby" Hayden (11), Nathaniel Barnaby (8), Reed Walker (5), Arabella Sloane (3) and Violet Eleanor (0).  Tobias went to Stanford where he majored in Biochemistry and Neurosciences. He is now a Neurosurgeon and works at Mount Sinai Hospital while Hazel is a stay-at-home mother, the family now resides in New York City, New York.

 

With around thirty people at the reunion, there were plenty of people to talk to, and it was fun watching all the kids play together. Cornelia and I fondly imagined Stellan joining in the fun and games when he's old enough.  I received plenty of child-rearing advice from all of Cornelia's siblings and their spouses, not to mention my in-laws, which was irksome at times, but I knew their intentions were kind and sincere.  One evening, Tobias asked me if Cornelia and I planned on having more children, or if we were just having Stellan. I told him that we would be interested in adopting again, but that we didn't have any concrete plans to adopt any time soon.  Tobias didn't ask anything else, but his question stuck with me for the rest of the week.

 

Cornelia, Stellan, and I finally returned home.  After putting Stellan to bed one night, Cornelia brought up the idea of international adoption, which we had considered before adopting Stellan.  We agreed that since it can be a two to four year process, we should put in a request at the adoption agency now.  The next day, I called our agent, Sibella Estienne Smith, who told me the countries they were currently in contact with.  We talked about Stellan, and she said that she would update us if any matches were found.  I hung up the phone feeling giddy about the prospect of having another child.

 

That weekend, Cornelia and I left Stellan at home with my mother so that we could go out to dinner.  We hadn't had a real date night since Stellan  was born, so it was a refreshing evening for both of us.  We talked about what countries we wanted to adopt from, deciding that China, Ukraine, and Haiti were our top choices.  We eventually decided that Ukraine was our first choice of country, since I recently had a few international students form Ukraine in my class this past year and hearing about their culture was certainly interesting and they had been some of my most well-behaved and sincere students ever. So we called Sibella the next day and told her that we were interested in adopting a child from Ukraine.

 

For the next few months, we had our home inspected and filled out countless forms.  During the summer, we decided to take a trip to The Atlantis in the Bahamas. It was wonderful to enjoy the beach and sun, Stellan adored making sandcastles and while we felt a little guilty a few times we left him in the daycare and got massages, had some nice dinners together and even spent one afternoon in the sun lazily while he got to go play with some touch sea animals. Of course, we also did a lot together, we met with Dolphins and took pictures and helped work on teaching Stellan to swim in the ocean and in the pool, our little man even tried his first water slide in my lap.

 

The months pass, and we keep in touch with Sibella, who informs us that there are no suitable matches for us yet.  Although we are disappointed by this, we get into a happy and stable routine with Stellan and rely on my mom's help less and less.  For his third birthday, Cornelia and I decided to throw a party for our son.  He asked for a Lion King themed party, since its his favorite movie by far, and I cannot wait to take him to see Hamlet when he's older, have him read it and take him to Denmark - my mother's birth country - one day considering his fascination.  While shopping for party supplies, I received a call from Sibella who told me that there was a match for us!  I rushed home and called Cornelia, who hurried home as well.  We received a file from Sibella with pictures of two year old twin boys from Ukraine.  We fell in love with them immediately. We speak with Sibella for another hour before leaving to go pick up Stellan from a weekend spent with Tobias, Hazel and their kids; Toby, Nathaniel, Reed, Arabella, Violet and their new little boy born six months ago, Brenner Koch Vervloet.

 

When we get home and Cornelia makes dinner and I bring up having a younger sibling to Stellan and he seems excited by the idea which eases some of our tension and we call back Sibella and talk through the process, we set up to go do a first visit in two months when I'll be off for Christmas break from work. We drop Stellan off with Cornelia's parents and then Cornelia, my mother and I fly off  to Ukraine to start some more of the process for the adoption and meet our precious babies, while not identical, both boys have Brown Hair and Green Eyes. They're adorable and down right perfect and we fall in love with them, at the end of the week and a half when we have to say good, I can't imagine anything more painful, but my mother and Cornelia help me get through it. We'll be returning for them soon enough.  We loved every minute that we spent with them and knew that they was the perfect match for our family.  It hurts even worse knowing we're leaving them in the orphanage...While not terrible, the conditions are....still heartbreaking, the boys go by Oleg and Igor, We were sad to part with them, but we gave them  kisses goodbye and told them that we would see them soon and they would finally com home. I got on our return flight in tears and the only thing that got me through it was knowing that Cornelia's parents and Stellan would be there at the airport to pick us up and I could hold Stellan in my arms.

 

As soon as our family gets home, we start to set up a nursery for our little ones. We even get Stellan involved with painting and helping to set it all up and the next thing you know its been another month and it is time for Cornelia and I to travel back to Ukraine to go pick up our little boys for good, to take home, we left Stellan with my mother for the week long time of ourst hearing, signing of papers and such and honestly, its all a rush and barely there memories and when we arrive, Cornelia's whole family, my mother and Stellan are there with all the food, gifts and babysitting offers we could ever want; of course what they're all eagerly awaiting is news I'm glad to give -we had decided to give the boys new names for a new start - as we inform them of the names we've chosen for our newest additions, Boden Cornelius Vervloet Storstrandand and Kai Porter Rowan Storstrand are welcomed joyfully into the Storstrand and Vervloet clan.

 

It has been two years since we welcomed Boden and Kai into our family and things have been going well, we're currently in waiting for our next adoption from China, which we settled the paper work on about six months ago. However, before that, we moved the family into a new home considering our growing family we knew we would need a little more space, thankfully Cornelia  got a promotion the previous year into a full term lawyer and not just an entry position. Which helped, we ended up moving to a new house, which is stunning - It's in a really lovely neighborhood full of families, it's got about eight bedrooms, so we set up three guest bedrooms, room 1 - room 2 - room 3, we made one room into a luxury master for ourselves, Stellan requested a lion king themed room, a spider man themed room for Boden, a sports themed room for Kai, then we left one room empty to be made up when we hear back from the adoption agency - the house also has an in home gym room, a built in playroom for the kids, an in home theater, a wonderful two person office, a luxury kitchen and we designed a lofting library room. It's a perfect home for us all.

 

It's late at night and I'm currently organizing some files for work and are surprised when the phone rings and I see its our case worker, Sieblla, as she had already spoken to you earlier today to once more inform us that we were still on the waiting list to be matched up with a child, and it was looking like no movement would be coming soon at all. I pick up the phone to answer and ask Sibella why she's calling so late and she informs me she's got some interesting news and a proposal for Cornelia and I and it appears that the birth mother of Stellan has fallen pregnant again which was a huge blow for her, she's in college and trying to make the most of her life. Once more she's looking to adopt out her baby, and she wanted to ask Cornelia and I first since the baby would be Stellan's half sibling and she knows it would go to a good home if we both raised the baby. I'm stunned. I ask if I have time to think about the decision before giving an answer, I need to talk to Cornelia and discuss it before we make any major decisions. Sibella says that's fine, but informs me the quicker the better in circumstances like this so Jennifer would be able to have more time to find a different family if we pick not to adopt her baby. I inform Sibella that I understand and end the conversation.

 

I finish my work and then a few hours later, Cornelia comes home and she just wants to go to bed, but I inform her and I need to talk. I sit down in our living room with Cornelia and inform her about the situation at hand, how Jennifer is pregnant again and would like our family to adopt the baby. At first Cornelia  is as shocked as I was, but she brings up how we both want a big family. I  agree and bring up all the empty space in our new large home. We both decide to sleep on it and head to bed

 

The next morning as we're bringing our kids to school and pre-school for the day, I bring up the idea of if they might like a new brother or a sister and they respond individually. Stellan an Boden are very excited to have another sibling, they say they want a little sister this time, but Kai is a little nervous, I ask him why and he said he's worried about not being the youngest anymore, but I promise him he'll always be my baby even if we have another sibling join our family, or ten and it seems to assuage his worries. I drop all the kids off and think about what my children said and head off to work, I have a pretty good day and my co-worker, Stephenie Ann Mathis, even brings in her new baby - Myles, and I coo over him, he's absolutely adorable and it makes my heart yearn for another child. Later that day, when I go home, Cornelia and I seem to both agree, we'd like to adopt Jennifer's baby. We call back our social worker and tell her that we would like to adopt the baby and she is more than pleased to hear it and we start up the process for it once more, signing things, agreeing to pay for certain costs and such, just like last time.

 

Only a few months later I speak with Jennifer to see how she is doing and how schooling is going for her, and its good, thankfully it seems her pregnancy will be in its latent months over the summer and it won't affect her school work, she also informs me that she's found out the baby's gender that day and the baby is a - A Girl. I'm utterly thrilled, while Cornelia and I would have been delighted either way with a healthy baby, we're still very excited at the chance to welcome our first daughter, and quickly send off a text to Cornelia to let her know before wishing Jennifer well and heading off my lunch break to get back to work.

 

When I get home that day I surprise my mother, Barbra, with the news that she'll be a grandmother again and of course she's thrilled and even more so that she'll be getting her first granddaughter. Then I inform the children who still don't entirely all seem so sure, but when I explain that they can help me decorate the room we had previously left bare. Boden and Kai are very excited, but oddly Stellan now seems a little more hesitant so I try and get him involved, but soon enough the nursery is done and looks fantastic. Stellan, Boden and Kai now seem excited, especially Stellan.

 

As the pregnancy progresses, its time to start thinking about names and Cornelia and I talk back and forth having some trouble, but in the end we find some names we like and can agree on for the baby's first name, Thisbe, but have trouble finding a matching middle name, but decide to leave it be for now. It'll come to us later and its not worth fighting over with Cornelia.

 

Of course, nothing can go as expected and on a hot, July afternoon, Jennifer goes into labor three weeks early and our baby arrives! She's 6 pounds and 2 ounces and 17 inches long. This time both Cornelia and I were in the delivery room for the birth and it was magical, a little scary, but magical. Our children are in the waiting room with my mother, Barbran, and Cornelia's parents - Eleanor and Byron, We're all very excited to meet their new family member, and so I bring out our Brown Haired and Brown Eyed bundle of joy and finally express their full name - Thisbe Emmeline Jenibelle Storstrand. We decided to give her middle names after Jennifer since she truly has given us such gifts in Stellan and Thisbe. As I see Thisbe swaddled in his blanket with my mother holding him while Stellan, Boden and Kai watch them with wide, excited eyes I could not find myself ever feeling this happy before and I'm so grateful.

 

It's been a year since we brought home Thisbe and things have been great, I love seeing my kids together, playing and just being together. As an only child, I found myself quite lonely growing up and seeing Stellan, Boden, Kai and Thisbe all together it makes my heart feel warm. It also gives me major headaches when they fight sometimes, but that's just part of the territory. One thing I also missed greatly when I was  growing up was a pet, my family had a dog when I was very little, but I never really grew up with a pet and I want that for my kids. Cornelia agrees having been raised with dogs her whole life. We decide the most amiable pet would probably be a Cat.

 

After picking which type of animal we think would be a good fit for your family, Cornelia and I go over a list of breeds, we take some votes from our friends and other family members, and end up picking Scottish Fold. We find a reputable breeder and get on the wait list for their upcoming litter of kittens. Its three months later and we hear back, there is a little female kitten with our name on it if we're ready. Of course we are! We bring the little one home and realize we forgot one very important thing - a name! We show off the little new family member to the kids and Cornelia, every one of us submit a name into a hat - Thisbe with a little help from Cornelia - I suggested the name Bronte, Cornelia suggested Kahlo, Stellan suggested Hermione, Boden suggests Finn, Kai suggests Libra and Thisbe suggests Oreo. Once they're all written down I put them in a hat, shake it and pick one name -  My name gets picked and thus our new family member is Bronte!

 

Soon enough, our new little fluff is settled and its nice, they're good for helping teach the kids some responsibility as they all have little chores to help out with Bronte. Plus they're cute as can be and have gained your instagram account an odd dozen or so new followers who love pictures of your adorable kitten.

 

A few weeks after we get our pet, we finally get a call from Sibella that our papers have gone through to China and we've been given a match! We've been matched with a Newborn Baby Girl, from the email accompanying the call, Cornelia and I see that the little one has Black Hair and Almond Eyes. We're instantly awestruck and in love. We read through everything and agree, this little one is just meant to be a part of your family.

 

Thankfully, a month later, its summer vacation and so we leave Stellan, Boden, Kai and Thisbe as well as Bronte with Tobias (41),  Hazel (39) and their kids: Toby (16), Nathaniel (13), Reed (10), Arabella (8), Violet (5), Banner (3), Levi Harvard Vervloet (2) and Matthew Jacob Vervloet (2) for two weeks while we head off to China to go meet our newest child for the first time in their country and we have an amazing time with them, spending some time alone, but also partaking in some cultural activities related to their culture heritage. Such as making traditional handicrafts, Chinese cooking classes, ceramic making, and programs to help us experience the culture of China's temples and history, It hurts to leave hr, but I hug her tight and promise I'll be back for her soon. We come back home and spend a few days just alone before Tobias and Hazel bring our kids and pet back home. I hug them all and show them pictures of our time with their new sister who will be coming home very soon. We all get together and take down one of the guest rooms and make it into a new nursery for her.

 

In fact, its only a month later in August that we fly back to China to pick up our child since overcrowding and needed space we  have to just get in and out, its a fast and messy four day procedure, but when we arrive to the airport to see all of our family, my mother, Cornelia's parents, Judah and Eloise with Andrew, Beatrice, Christian, Daisy and Elle; Cecelia and Arthur with Frederick, George, Charlotte, Margaret, Susannah and Alice; and Tobias and Hazel with Toby, Nathaniel, Reed, Arabella, Violet, Banner, Levi and Matthew - with Stellan, Boden, Kai and Thisbe with banners welcoming the family home as  we walk over and introduce them now all in person to Mischa Esme Vervloet Storstrand the newest member of the family.

 

It's been about two years since we welcomed Mische into our family. Unfortunately, tragedy has struck. As surprising as it is, about two years ago I reconnected with Casey, my college roommate, surprisingly at a mommy and me class, and the two of us became friends, Casey had matured a lot since college, apparently it was a new thing since she had turned her life around after getting pregnant on a one night stand and having her daughter, Rowena Severina Dylan, who is honestly one of the most adorable children with hwe cherubic cheeks, Red Hair and Hazel Eyes. We started having play dates with our kids - Thisbe and Rowena became the best of friends - and actually gotten along quite so much so that now that she and her boyfriend, Ian Owen Northwood,  are expecting a baby and she has asked Cornelia and I to be the god parents and we couldn't be happier, sadly something went wrong. Only a few months after their son, Dylan Edmund Northwood was born with the most precious downy locks of Blonde Hair and big , soft Blue Eye - Casey and Ian and are a part of a tragic car accident and die on impact. Thankfully, though for small favors, Rowena and Dylan were at home that night with a babysitter and are fine.

 

The news devastates me when I get the call the night after, and what is even more shocking is that we find out that Cornelia and I have been listed in their will to inherit not only a large lump some of money, as well as managing trusts for both of their children, but they would like Cornelia and I to be the guardians of their children and adopt them. Casey was an only child of a single mother who passed away during our time in college and Ian was the only child of parents, Donald Walter Northwood and Edith Donna Northwood, who are quite old now and are in no shape to take on a three year old and a three month old full time.

 

While I am stunned at first, we both know there is no one else out there to take in these children, but the two of us. If we decline they will end up in the foster system, will probably end up being separated from one another, it's not a pretty picture. Their best chance at remaining together and being able to have a relationship with their grandparents is Cornelia and I. We already adore and love Rowena from spending time with them and our heart breaks at the idea of saying no to him and so after taking another night talking with Cornelia, We both decide to go through with it and adopt them.

 

Most of the paper work is set up and we have Sibella look over it just to make sure everything is correct in the paper work before signing it. Rowena and Dylan are currently spending the weekend with their grandparents while Cornelia and I set up a room for them - we turn over a spare room we had been using for storage  and then set up a shared room for them - it actually came out quite cute considering how much of a rush and little time we had it coming together . As soon as its done we call Donald and Edith, and arrange to pick Rowena and Dylan up from them.

 

Cornelia and I bring them home and they're quiet at first, but Mischa gives Rowena a big hug and takes them over to play some games with Stellan, Boden, Kai and Thisbe, and it makes me happy to see how intuitive my kids are at cheering Rowena up while I rock and care for Dylan and call up my mother, Barbra, and inform her of what is going on and asking her to come stay with us for a few days to help out with getting everything settled. My mother agrees and doesn't mind at all, feeling saddened beyond belief for the poor kids. It's rough at first, Rowena is constantly asking for her mommy and daddy and has some nightmares and the little one still does not sleep through the night, thankfully my mother's help makes it better the first few weeks and it becomes routine for Cornelia and I and we settle in. Now, we couldn't imagine our life without them both living with us. Cornelia and I decide to make everything more official by hyphenating Rowena's and Dylan's last names with our own, officially making them Rowena Dylan-Storstrand and Dylan Northwood-Storstrand. That way they are a part of our family without loosing their old family.

 

Three short months later and it seems as if Rowena and Dylan have always been a part of our family. They fit into our daily life and its like they have always been there with us. What surprises us is when you get a call from Sibella, things had been so busy that we had forgotten that before you'd even taken Rowena and Dylan in we had been looking into fostering and or adopting another child domestically. There is a child in need of a placement, a little girl, who has Black Hair and Hazel Eyes and was left at a fire station, there is no other information on her, but a doctor calculated a close to approximate age as just about one year old.

 

Cornelia and I feel stressed about the idea, but Sieblla explains that we are the fourth person she's called and the last person on her list before the child will have to be sent to a home. We agree to take the little one in just for now, until they can find another place to stay. For now though, they need a name, so Cornelia and I use some names you had considered if we had more children and call them - Paisley Hermione Lavender - instead of Jane Doe. As time progress though, its been a month, and the makeshift room we've had for Paisley had become a full on room. They've seemingly settled in and we agreed to foster Paisley  instead of just being a continued emergency placement.

 

 

It's been three years since we welcomed home our last child and since then we have officially adopted, Paisley, who  we were previously fostering. Things have been fantastic and recently you retired from my job as a history professor - I enjoyed the job a lot, but I wanted to do something else. I decided to open my own business - children's museum where you work on bringing history to youth. Opening my own business has allowed me more time at home, to spend with my kids and to get them involved with history and learning and also in the business aspect to help teach them a good work ethic and skills for themselves.

 

Things have been good with the running of my business, taking time with my children and even playing with Bronte more often. I feel more carefree and at home and with my  kids getting older - I can't help wanting to hold another baby in my arms. I speak to Cornelia about it and she feels similarly about the whole thing - so I call Sibella and let her know we like to be put on the list and that by the end of the week we'll have an updated baby book ready by the end of the week. Things progress amiably and the older kids help make it and everything. It's a fun family bonding experience for us all and once its done we send it off to Sibella so she can set it up.

 

In fact things have been going so well, and with the expansion ofyour family and large income increase thanks to how well my business has been doing wwe decide to buy the home for sale next to our own. We bulldoze the home and have our family move into an apartment for 4 months. During this time we hire a construction crew and have them expand upon our property and merge things expanding upon our home - adding 6 bed rooms to our home, so we now have 14 bedrooms, as well as expanding upon our home adding several bathrooms,  upgrading the kitchen even more, making a small guest house on the property, a game room, adding a second office so we don't share, adding a huge play gym in the backyard, and assembling an out of this world tree house and even a big pool with a waterside and expanding the playroom.

 

Once the construction is done and we move in and we're honestly in-love and so are the kids, they're all happy to have their own rooms and not be so cramped as it was at the temporary housing while we were waiting for the construction to be done. The even better news is just a few weeks after moving back in we  get a call from Sieblla. She's found us a match! A young woman who is in the middle of attending law school, she and her now ex-boyfriend got pregnant and while they had thought about keeping them at first realized they could barely keep a relationship working let alone take care of two - yes two - babies. The woman is expecting twins. However, before she agrees to finalize anything she would like to meet Cornelia and I to see if she feels as comfortable with us as she did when reading your family book.

 

A week later you meet her - Emerson Claire Cassius - and she's amazing. A well put together young woman, we talk for awhile and find some common ground, a love for Scandinavian history with me and then of course the lawyer connection with Cornelia, which helps ease us all into conversation. It's much different then when we dealt with Jennifer - it seems Emerson has a plan for her life and knows what she wants to do and is working for it which impresses Cornelia and I quite a lot.  After we speak for a few hours, Emerson admits she feels rather confident with having her children be adopted into our family. She feels that we are loving an caring people and in the photo book our family looks happy and we're doing all these fantastic things which is what she wants for her babies. The three of us all agree on wanting this and the only thing Emerson would like is for us to do is pay for health care costs, nothing more and that is fine so we call up Sibella and they agree to work on a contract for us all to sign soon. We say our goodbyes and head back home to our kids and are excited to see them, then we all have a family movie night and settle in.

 

A few days later Sibella faxes over the contract to us and in it is everything you discussed with Emerson, we'll pay for her pregnancy related medical costs and in addition she would like a nearly closed adoption - she'd just like yearly updates on their birthday with pictures and a letter just talking about them and how they've been doing. As long as no contact is initiated we're happy and this is no hardship to complete for the woman gifting us two precious babies to care for and love. Cornelia sign the contract and move on from their and inform the kids they'll be getting not just one, but two more little siblings - they're all rather excited to expect another sibling and Dylan is ready to be a big brother himself. 

 

A month later we get an excited call from, Sibella, as Emerson visited the doctor that day and found out that we'll be expecting fraternal boy/girl twins and we're thrilled. Sibella promises to mail us the pictures of the sonograms and everything else from the doctor's visit to keep us informed. 

 

Now that we know the gender of the twins, we all take one of the guest rooms we have no and change it into a nursery for them. For now they'll share to make life a little easier for Cornelia when we have to do late night feedings and when they're a little older you'll give them rooms of their own.  The new nursery.

 

The next four months pass in a flurry and you get a call from Sibella that Emerson has started labor before the planned c-section date and so she's going to the hospital now to do it. We frantically call up all our family, my mother rushes over to watch the kids while Cornelia and I head off to the hospital. Emerson doesn't want us in the room and we respect that, waiting in the lounge as the hours pass, but soon enough Sieblla comes out to inform us both babies are happy and health - ten fingers and ten toes each. The oldest is five pounds and six ounces and eighteen inches long while the younger twin is five pounds even and nineteen inches long. Emerson spends an hour with each baby, gifting them hand knitted blankets and hats she made for them before kissing each on the head and handing them to you with tears in her eyes, she thanks you for loving them and asks that we move into a different room so she can rest and we do. Staring at our beautiful little ones. Baby Boy has Blonde Hair and Blue Eyes while Baby Girl has Brown Hair and Hazel Eyes and as we look at them we know the names we picked fit them perfect - Logan Emmett Cassius Storstrand and Anouk Clarissa Ellison Storstrand - and more than that we know they're meant for our family and with them our family finally feels complete.

 

 

It's been nine years since we adopted Logan and Anouk and a lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same - since these past nine years We've opened not just one, but two more of the off shoots of my original business, -Mini Historians, Split Plants (focuses on the history of plants) and Lil Sapiens (focuses on the history of human life) and Cornelia has retired from her own job to help me run the business and we both enjoy working together and it helps fulfill another part of our relationship that we had never done before. Plus with a lot of things going so well, we're enjoying seeing our kids grow up and become more of themselves.

 

However, growing up at times comes with certain difficulties and lately some of the children have been having a few problems with their behavior and school.

 

Kai has gotten his girlfriend pregnant. It's a bit of a low blow to find out, partially because we know Kai and his girlfriend, Roxanne, honestly aren't something very serious. They've only been dating four months months and she's three months' pregnant. Not to mention we worry this might differ Kai's college plans. He's currently attending Columbia University and has been doing fantastic in school, Roxanne is a student at Barnard which is the sister school and they've both put in so much work to get where they are - we don't want them to feel pressure to make a decision that they might one day regret. We decide to have a family dinner, Kai, Cornelia and I, Roxanne and her parents. As we eat dinner, things are tense and at the end we head back to Kai's apartment to talk it all out and well, after some discussion it seems the options on the table are adoption and or Roxanne and Kai keeping the baby. Roxanne and Kai are strong in their opinion that they want to keep their baby and raise him or her together as a family. Roxanne's parents don't seem happy, but we all decide to ignore that and Cornelia and I promise to support Kai and Roxanne in any way they might need and just hope things will work out.

 

Thisbe has been having a bit of an attitude problem lately, she's skipped classes and we even found a bottle of vodka in her room when I was putting away some laundry. I confronted Thisbe about the booze, as well as how she's been behaving and she just mouthed off to me some more, so much so that Cornelia and I decided to have a sit down with her in her room later that night, but she's been tight lipped on it and we inform her she's grounded until further notice and she decides to talk to us. Thisbe is not happy about it, but well, if she is going to misbehave, then she needs to understand her actions have consequences.

 

Rowena has been starting fights at school as well, we've been called into the principals office twice in the past month, because of it and we're at a loss. We don't know why, we try to talk to Rowena and she's tight lipped about it as well, and I found booze in her room as well, and it makes my stomach turn. I want what's best for my daughters and I'm concerned something is not right and what's bothering Rowena might also be causing the issues with Thisbe. We're hoping that maybe something we can do can help us with them both.

 

Logan has been starting fights as well, but thankfully, the reasoning here is simple, the boy he's been getting into fights with we find out has been picking on and upsetting Anouk, we call the school to try and explain the situation, about why Logan has been starting fights and how this other boy needs to be dealt with as well to end the problem, but the issue at hand is the school isn't willing to do anything citing that the boy probably just likes Anouk and its boys being boys, which infuriates Cornelia and I. We talk to Logan about how hitting is not okay and he needs to use his words to diffuse his problems. We're hoping Logan will listen to us, but are still worried about Anouk getting bullied.

Stellan, Boden, Mischa, Paisley, Dylan and Anouk have all thankfully been fine. No problems, no issues - they're all doing fine in school, enjoying activities and just being happy.

 

With all of this happening at once, Cornelia and I decide we need to make some changes. First of all, we make the choice to have the kids switch out of their schools into a private one, Dalton Academy which features grades pre-k to 12th, the school has a zero tolerance issue with bullying and also this way they will be away from any previous bad influence or place that might be giving the kids trouble, and hope that perhaps a change of pace will help the children to settle down and become a bit happier. Since things are fine with Stellan and Boden away at school, we leave them be and we set up a twice monthly dinner with Stellan and Roxanne through the pregnancy to try and assist them.

 

We also decide to have Thisbe and Rowena start to see some therapist to hopefully have them work out their issues or whatever it is that is causing them to have attitude problems and fighting in school, and we involve Logan in martial arts classes, hoping they might diffuse some tension and teach him discipline.

 

Kai's issues are improving, they got a lot worse before they got better. Things seemed fine, Roxanne and Kai were getting along, setting up for the baby, they even decorated a nursery for their baby, only to find out they were expecting twins actual, twin girls and changing the nursery for their little ones - however after finding out they were expecting twins, I noticed Roxanne seemed a little cagey, I just brushed it off as nerves of a new mother and then expecting twins, but I was wrong. Very wrong. We didn't find out until two weeks after Juniper Quinn Storstand and Anias Cornelia Storstand are born with Brown Hair and Blue Eyes and then Blonde Hair and Blue Eyes respectively. However, it was not okay, one night Roxanne just did not come home after supposedly going to meet her parents for dinner, the next morning, Kai called us frantic and in tears. A lawyer had come and dropped off papers, Roxanne had signed away her parental rights, and filed a restraining order, asking for zero contact. There was a large sum of money set up and left to Kai to take care of the girls, but no contact, no nothing. Roxanne had even left Barnard and changed to a different school. As a mother, I just can't understand how she could leave her babies. However, with that, Kai was overwhelmed and having trouble managing being a single father to twin girls, so he makes the choice to take a semester off, withdrawing for personal reasons and since then things have gotten better, he's working out a schedule and we're helping Kai out with the girls, he's hoping to start up school again next semester.

 

While it seemed like things were going better, Thisbe's got a new issue and a much more concerning one - she's pregnant. It seemed the attitudes, the problem and all of it culminated in partying and even in the new school she seemed to find the party crowd at first. Hooking up, going around and now she's pregnant. That seemed to be the sock to the system that Thisbe needed though and she's stopped partying and seemed to focus, after a DNA test with three young men, it turns out the father of Thisbe's baby is Corey Simon Tyler, he's a two years older than Thisbe and he's a good kid from a nice family, and he's there for Thisbe as they work things out, they plan to co-parent, but they're not together which might be better for them in the long run raising their baby - I worry I might have failed Thisbe as a mother, I meant to stop the cycle of teen pregnancy from Thisbe's own mother and here she is pregnant. Though, she has much more support from both sides when she welcomes little Bellamy Sparrow Stostrand-Tyler with little curls of Brown Hair and bright Blue Eyes.

 

Rowena has been improving her issues, the therapy has been helping her deal with her issues and the separation from the other badly behaved kids at her old school and there have been no new fights at Dalton, her grades are up and things just seem to be looking good right now. Cornelia and I could honestly not be more relieved to see she's making strides and things are going better for her.

 

Dylan sadly has been having some difficulties with the new school and his grades have started falling, we think it might be the new environment and missing his friends from school to play with them. We set him up with an older student from school to tutor Dylan and hopefully that will help turn around his grades and make things a little easier for him.

 

Thankfully, things are going much better for Logan at his new school, he's stopped fighting, has new friends and everything is really looking good for him and we could not be more pleased that the change is helping him out.
 

 

Stellan, Boden, Mischa, Paisley, and Anouk have all continued to be fine, healthy, happy and well-adjusted. All of them are puttering along,

 

While we weren't expecting grandchildren so early, we love the newest addition to the family.

 

 

The Storstrand Family

 

DW: Poppy Esme Rowena Storstrand [52] [Red Hair & Blue Eyes] [Business Owner]

DW: Cornelia Genevieve Storstrand (nee Vervloet) [51] [Brown Hair & Hazel Eyes] [Lawyer]

 

DAS1: Stellan Tobias Judah Storstrand [20] [Blonde Hair & Brown Eyes]

(Adopted Domestically; birth mother: Jennifer Altair)

DAS2: Boden Cornelius Vervloet Storstrand [19] [Brown Hair & Green Eyes]

(Adopted from Ukraine; twin brother of Kai)

DAS3: Kai Porter Rowan Storstrand [19] [Brown Hair & Green Eyes]

(Adopted from Ukraine; twin brother of Boden)

DAD1: Thisbe Emmeline Jenibelle Storstrand [15] [Blonde Hair & Brown Eyes]

(Adopted Domestically; birth mother: Jennifer Altair)

DAD3: Rowena Severina Dylan-Storstrand [15] [Red Hair & Hazel Eyes]

(Guardian Adoption; daughter of Casey Northwood)

DAD2: Mischa Esme Vervloet Storstrand [14] [Black Hair & Almond Eyes]

(Adopted from China)

DAD4: Paisley Hermione Lavender Storstrand [13] [Black Hair & Hazel Eyes]

(Adopted Domestically; birth parents unknown)

DAS4: Dylan Edmund Northwood-Storstrand [12] [Blonde Hair & Blue Eyes]

(Guardian Adoption; son of Casey and Ian Northwood)

DAS5: Logan Emmett Cassius Storstrand [9] [Blonde Hair & Blue Eyes]

(Adopted Domestically; birth mother: Emerson Cassius; twin brother of Anouk)

DAD5: Anouk Clarissa Ellison Storstrand  [9] [Brown Hair & Hazel Eyes]

(Adopted Domestically; birth mother: Emerson Cassius; twin sister of Logan)

 

Cat: Bronte [14, Scottish Fold]

 

Poppy and Cornelia Storstrand; with Stellan, Boden, Kai, Thisbe, Rowena, Mischa, Paisley, Dylan, Logan & Anouk + Bronte 

 

---------------------------------

 

The Storstand Family

 

DAS3: Kai Porter Rowan Storstrand [19] [Brown Hair & Green Eyes]

Ex-DGF: Roxanne Tabitha Mallory [20] [Blonde Hair & Blue Eyes] (Mother of Juniper & Anais) (No Contact)
 

DD1: Juniper Quinn Storstand [0] [Brown Hair & Blue Eyes]

(Twin sister of Anias)

DD2: Anias Cornelia Storstand [0] [Blonde Hair & Blue Eyes]

(Twin sister of Juniper)

 

Kai Storstrand; with Juniper & Anias

 

---------------------------------

 

The Storstrand/Tyler Family

 

DAD1: Thisbe Emmeline Jenibelle Storstrand [15] [Blonde Hair & Brown Eyes]

DF: Corey Simon Tyler [17] [Brown Hair & Blue Eyes] (Father of Bellamy) (Co-Parenting)

 

DD1: Bellamy Sparrow Storstrand-Tyler [0] [Brown Hair & Blue Eyes]

 

Thisbe Storstand (and father Corey Tyler); with Bellamy


 

 



#8 astrothief42

astrothief42

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Posted 04 April 2016 - 04:40 AM

My name is Rhiannon Maisie JørgensenI have red hair and blue eyes and I'm 22 years old. I'm a student at Stanford University and I'm pursuing a major in Forensic Anthropology. Ever since I've come to college, I've always been focused on my studies. I've worked very hard to get into Stanford and need to maintain a certain GPA to continue getting my scholarship money to enable me to continue; the second being I need to be able to get scholarships to go on and further my education.

 

However, today is the last day of my fourth year of being an undergrad and I've just taken my final exam, I'm thrilled, and feel like I've passed all my classes with flying colors, and I could not be more ecstatic. All I want to do now is sleep, maybe watch some Netflix, but my roommate, Ashton Jameson Shepard,  insists I accompany her to the party to make sure she gets home safe since she plans on drinking. I loathe the idea, but she did help me out studying for my final in Biology. So, I accompany her to the party and watch her have a good time and hang out on the outskirts of the party.

 

Suddenly, a guy comes up to me. I dismiss him at first, but he made a comment about my favorite band, which kind of catches my interest. He's got black hair and green eyes (but wears light blue contacts) and introduces himself as Stellan Felix van de Laar. He's 18 years old. I start talking to Stellan and find out about him. He's apparently a legacy of the university, went to prep schools his whole life, has traveled the world with his bourgeois family and while that would usually make me feel a bit of a chip on my shoulder, for some reason, it doesn't with Stellan. I find him charming. I also find out that Stellan is majoring in Biochemistry, and the way he speaks about his major so passionately, entices me. We talk for hours before my roommate stumbles over. Realizing I need to get her home, but not wanting the conversation with Stellan to end, we exchange numbers and I promise to call him later. I leave with my roommate and head back to my dorm, feeling much happier than when I arrived at the party.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

It's been ten years since the night of the party, and I honestly cannot help but to look back fondly on it. It's the first night I met Stellan, who has now become my husband. We've both graduated from not only our undergrad programs, but from our respective medical school programs and are working in our dream jobs - I'm a Forensic Anthropologist and he's a Biochemist. Stellan and I could not be happier right now. However, there does seem to be something missing. The pitter patter of little feet. So, Stellan and I decide to start trying for a family. We spend 2 years trying and failing to get pregnant, but nothing happens. No pregnancy.

 

We see a fertility doctor who unfortunately informs us that between the two of us there is a low sperm count, and apparently a previously un-diagnosed case of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome with me. The chance of us having a biological child together is next to near impossible. The first thought of it stuns us both. We go home with that knowledge and both discuss some options, but we mostly grieve our loss. Both Stellan and I have always wanted a big family; me as an only child and Stellan comes from a big family with a slew of brothers and sisters. 
 

It takes us 1 month to finally broach the subject of what we two want to do next - stay childless or look into adoption. It's an easy discussion between us and we decide we want to look into adoption. The first thing we decide is we want to look into both international adoption and into domestic adoption. It takes us some time to find an agency to work with and then to get our home looked into and approved for viability. It's a longer process then expected, but a year later we've been set up by the agency and made an adoption book and just hoped that we would be matched with someone - then one day we were.

 

Our case worker informs us that we've been chosen by a young teen, Jessica Sophia Alcyone, who has fallen pregnant. She wants the adoption to be closed. While we feel sorry for the girl, an excitement does well inside of our chest. Stellan and I want this. We want to be parents. We meet with Jessica, and she comes to our house. We all talk and in the end, we sign the papers. We agree to help pay for the cost of her pregnancy from now on, from making sure her medical bills are paid, new maternity clothes are purchased, and help her with getting good healthy food. Other than that there is minimal contact which works well for all parties. 

 

We find out at the six month mark that Jessica is expecting a boy. Either sex would have been okay, but Stellan and I are just so thrilled. The first thing we do is go to half a dozen baby stores and purchase all the things we have always wanted to buy. We spend hours after, well into the night and wee hours of the morning setting up a nursery. It looks so beautiful and we honestly cry. We never thought that first night after seeing the infertility doctor we would ever get to set up a nursery.

 

The rest of the pregnancy goes by so fast. We work through the whole situation by working extra hours and then well, it happens. Jessica goes into labor. It's a quick one and we're there the whole time in the waiting room. Our little one is born perfect with blonde hair and brown eyes, weighing in at 7 pounds and 9 ounces and 23 inches long. Jessica signs away her rights without ever seeing him. We feel incredible when we look down and just know Levi Josiah is coming home with us, where he belongs, and Stellan and I feel such joy as we strap him into his car seat to take him home.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

It has been a year since we welcomed Levi into our family and both Stellan and I love being parents, while at times it's very hard considering we work demanding jobs, and with having been promoted, we get help from my mother, Katherine Jane Jørgensen, we know Levi is always in good hands even if Stellan and I are busy with work.

 

However, later that week Stellan, Levi and I attend Stellan's family's yearly reunion. We're staying with his parents, Emmanuel Oscar and Vera Celeste van de Laar, while we do so. Stellan is the youngest of 6 children.  Thaddeus Humphrey van de Laar, 43, is the oldest of the bunch. He is a world renowned surgeon who has been married for 25 years and has eight beautiful children with his wife, Ruby Hazel van de Laar {42}. They are: Nathan Oscar {23},Oliver Miles {21}, Gabriel Wyatt {18}, India Grace {16}, Madeleine Rose {13}, Sophia Violet {11}, Dominic Lucas {9}, and Tessa Eve de Laar {6}. 

 

The next child is Judah Tobias van de Laarwho is 39. He is a CPA and is married to Clementine Ivy van de Laar {37}. They have four daughters. They are: Thea Mabel {17}, Hope Claire {15}, Daisy Faith {12}, and Gemma Leila de Laar {8}. 

 

Dexter Amos van de Laar is the third son. He is 37 years old and is a Lawyer. He's been married to Lydia Alice van de Laar {35} for 17 years, and they have six children. Their names are Jackson Ezra {19}, Christian Liam {18}, Natalie Ava {16}, Graham Lewis {14}, Jonah Milo {13}, and Charlotte Ella de Laar {10}.

 

Cora Mirabel Gallagher is the fourth child and oldest daughter. She is a stay-at-home mom, is 35 years old, and has been with her husband, Montgomery Frederick Gallagher {36}, for 21 years, and has been married for 15. They have 5 children. They are: Emma Juliet {18}, Finn Hudson {16}, Julian Isaac {13},Carolina Josie {9}, and Lily Paige Gallagher {5}.

 

Evangeline Violet van Holland is the fifth child and youngest daughter. She is 34 years old. She is married to Calvin Silas Holland {34} and has 3 children. They are: Harry Sawyer {10}, Francesca Zoe {7}, and Nicholas Owen Holland {2}.

 

 I love spending time with my husband's siblings (their spouses), and our nieces and nephews. They're always talking to us and giving us advice about child rearing, relationships, etc., and while irksome at times, I know it all comes from a good and loving place. Later, when speaking to Cora, she asks me if Stellan and I plan to have anymore kids or if we just plan to have Levi. I offhandedly comment that we would like more kids, but are unsure when Stellan and I intend to look into further adoption, and then I go back to talking about other things, but the thought does seem to stay with me a bit.

 

The night after the reunion and after coming home from work and putting Levi to bed, Stellan and I are reading in bed when he brings back up the fact that we still would like to adopt internationally and that it can take quite a bit of time. I agree with Stellan, having known other people in the adoption community in online support groups who have waited years, and I know we just got very lucky with Levi. We agree to go to bed and place a call with our case worker and agency tomorrow about paper work, considering the likely occurrence of a two to four year wait to be matched up with a child.

 

The next day on our lunch break I place a call to my agent, Catharina Amaya Wagner, and she agrees it would be good to start working through the papers since it could take some time. Cat explains which countries she has current associations with and informs me that Stellan and I need to pick one to start the process. We chit chat a little more about how Levi is doing before hanging up and heading back to work that day, extremely excited.

 

That night I ask Stellan's oldest sibling and his wife - Thaddeus and Ruby - to watch Levi so Stellan and I can decide on which country we want to adopt from. After leaving Levi, we go out and have a nice dinner together for the first time in awhile and savor it, making some small work talk before hitting to harder subjects. We discuss some of the places that intrigue us, and make it down to our top three locations - Japan, Ethiopia and Germany. Eventually, we end up deciding on Ethiopia because of how many orphans there are in Africa.

 

Later that night, I send an email off to my agent to get the ball rolling on the process. The next day I pick up Levi from Stellan's brother and sister-in-law, Thaddeus and Ruby, and feel refreshed and excited about our decision. Over the next couple of months, Stellan and I work through the paper work, have our home visits and then hit the dry spell we knew would hit, but we fill it with exciting things including our first family vacation with Levi.

 

It takes some time for us to decide, but we end up picking Disney World. Stellan and I pick a less crowded week to take off, not around traditional holidays, and then spend the week with our family, making memories and taking a ton of photos. We got on every single ride, including the ones in Magic Kingdom. My favorite part was the water rides, and Stellan and I's least favorite part was cleaning up all the puke out of the car when Levi got sick.

 

Sadly, even after that, I still haven't heard much back from my agent, other then she's still looking to match Stellan and I with a child. We try not to feel disheartened by the time frame and continue to enjoy life as it is now. I get into a routine again with Stellan and Levi, and my monthly discussions with my case worker to check in, until it's been about a year and a half since I put in the paper work, and Levi is just a month away from turning three! I can't believe how big he's gotten.

 

While shopping for Levi's party (he's having a Safari theme), I get a call from my agent. She's found a match! I ask Cat if I can call her back in a minute as I am out and not at a computer to receive the file, and she agrees. I rush through check out and quickly call Stellan telling him he needs to get home; we've been matched! I throw everything into the car and drive home and thankfully Stellan is there as well, and I call Cat back, who informs me that we've been matched with a 2 year old girl, and we couldn't be more thrilled. I speak with her for another hour before she sends the file and I open it up, look through pictures, and feel my heart melt. Stellan and I browse through it a little more before leaving to go pick up Levi from a day with Stellan's parents.

 

I get home and Stellan makes dinner and we bring up having a younger sibling to Levi, and he seems excited by the idea, which eases some of our tension, and I call back my agent and talk through the process. We set up to go do a first visit in two months when we'll be off for Christmas break from work. Stellan, my mother, and Levi and I fly off to Ethiopia and meet our precious little girl for the first time. She has black hair and brown eyes. She's adorable and down right perfect, and we fall in love with her. At the end of the week and a half when we have to say goodbye, we can't imagine anything more painful, but Stellan and my mother help me get through it. We'll be returning for her soon enough.

 

As soon as our family gets home, we start to set up a nursery for our little girl. We get Levi involved with painting and helping to set it all up, and the next thing we know, it's been another month and Stellan and I travel back to Ethiopia to go pick up our daughter for good, to take home, and when we arrive, Stellan's whole family, my mother and Levi are there with all the food, gifts and babysitting offers we could ever want; of course, what they're all eagerly awaiting is news we're glad to give, as we inform them of the name we've chosen for our newest addition. Haven Stella is welcomed joyfully into the van de Laar clan.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

It has been two years since Stellan and I welcomed our last child and things have been going well. We're currently in waiting for our next adoption from Korea, which we settled the paper work on about six months ago. However, before that, we moved the family into a new home considering our growing family, we knew we would need a little more space. Thankfully, Stellan got a promotion the previous year, which has increased our house revenue tenfold, which helped. We ended up moving to a new house, which has 10 bedrooms, 4 and a half baths, a recreational room, sun room, theater and a pool. We love the house because of all the amenities it came with, and there's a school and a playground right down the road.

 

It's late at night and I'm currently organizing some files for work and am surprised when the phone rings, and see it's my case worker, Cat, as she had already spoken to me earlier today to once more inform me that we were still on the waiting list to be matched up with a child, and it was looking like no movement would be coming soon at all. I pick up the phone to answer and ask my social worker why she's calling so late, and she informs me that she's got some interesting news and a proposal for Stellan and I. It appears that the birth mother of Levi has fallen pregnant again, which was a huge blow for her. She's in college and trying to make the most of her life. Once more she's looking to adopt out her baby, and she wanted to ask Levi and I first, since the baby would be Levi's half sibling and she knows it would go to a good home if we raised the baby. I'm stunned. I ask Cat if I have time to think about the decision before giving an answer. I need to talk to Stellan and discuss it before we make any major decisions. Cat says that's fine, but informs me the quicker, the better, in circumstances like this, so Jessica would be able to have more time to find a different family, if we decide not to adopt her baby. I inform her that I understand and end the conversation.

 

I finish my work and then a few hours later, Stellan comes home and he just wants to go to bed, but I inform him that we need to talk. I sit down in the living room with Stellan and inform him about the situation at hand, how Jessica is pregnant again and would like us to adopt the baby. At first Stellan is as shocked as I was, but he brings up how we both want a big family. We agree and bring up all the empty space in our new large home. We decide to sleep on it, and head to bed.

 

The next morning, as I'm bringing my kids to school and pre-school for the day, I bring up the idea if they might like a new brother or sister and they respond individually. Levi is joyed and Haven doesn't care, and this make me feel a tad upset for Haven. I drop the kids off and think about what they said and head off to work. I have a pretty good day and my co-worker even brings in her new baby, and I coo over him. He's absolutely adorable and it makes my heart yearn for another child. Later that day, when I go home, Stellan and I seem to both agree that we'd like to adopt Jessica's baby. I call my social worker back and tell her that we would like to adopt the baby, and she is more than pleased to hear it, and we start up the process for it once more, signing things, agreeing to pay for certain costs and such.

 

Only a few months later, I speak with Jessica to see how she is doing and how schooling is going for her, and it's good. Thankfully, it seems her pregnancy will be in its latent months over the summer and it won't affect her school work. She also informs me that she's found out the baby's gender that day, and the baby is a girl. I'm thrilled and quickly send off a text to Stellan to let him know before wishing birth mother well, and heading off my lunch break to get back to work.

 

When I get home that day, I surprise my mother with the news that she'll be a grandmother again. and of course she's thrilled. Then I inform the children who still don't entirely all seem so sure, but when I explain that they can help decorate the room, Haven is very excited, but Levi seems a little more hesitant, so I try and get him involved, but soon enough, the nursery is done and looks fantastic. The children now seem excited, especially Levi.

 

As the pregnancy progresses, it's time to start thinking about names, and Stellan and I talk back and forth, having some trouble, but in the end we find some names we like and can agree on for the baby's first name, Anneliese, but have trouble finding a matching middle name, but we decide to leave it be for now. It'll come to us later and it's not worth fighting over with Stellan.

 

Of course, nothing can go as expected and on a hot, July afternoon, Jessica goes into labor three weeks early and our baby arrives! She's 6 pounds and 2 ounces and 17 inches long. This time both Stellan and I were in the delivery room for the birth and it was magical. A little scary, but magical. Our children are in the waiting room with my mother and Stellan's parents, who're all very excited to meet their new family member, and so we bring out our red hair andhazel eyed bundle of joy, and finally express her full name, Anneliese Sophia van de Laar. We decided to give her a middle name after Jessica since she truly has given us such gifts in Levi and in our newest baby. As we see Anna swaddled in her blanket with my mother holding her, and our other children watching them with wide, excited eyes, we could not find yourself ever feeling this happy before and we're so grateful.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

It's been a year since we brought home Anna and things have been great. I love seeing my kids together, playing and just being together. As an only child, I found myself quite lonely growing up and seeing Levi, Haven and Anna all together, it makes my heart feel warm. It also gives me major headaches when they fight sometimes, but that's just part of the territory. One thing I also missed greatly when I was growing up was a pet. My family had a dog when I was very little, but I never really grew up with a pet and I want that for my kids. Stellan agrees, having been raised with cats, dogs and ferrets his whole life. We decide the most amiable pet would probably be a cat.

.

After picking which type of animal I think would be a good fit for my family, Stellan and I go over a list of breeds. We take some votes from friends and other family members, and end up picking a Persian. We find a reputable breeder and get ourselves on the waiting list for their upcoming litter of kittens. It's three months later and we hear back. There is a little male kitten with our name on it if we're ready. Of course we are! We bring the little one home and realize we forgot one very important thing - a name! We show off the little new family member to our kids. Every one of us submit a name into a hat - our youngest child with a little help from Stellan. I chose King, Stellan chose Michelangelo, Levi chose Harry, Haven chose Max, and Anna chose Pepper. Once they're all written down, I put them in a hat, shake it and pick one name - Anna's name gets picked and thus our new family member is Pepper!

Soon enough, our new little ball of fluff is settled and it's nice. He's good for helping teach the kids some responsibility, as they all have little chores to help out with the new pet. Plus, he's cute as can be and I have gained my Instagram account an odd dozen or so new followers, who love pictures of our adorable kitten.

 

A few weeks after I get my pet, I finally get a call from Cat that our papers have gone through to Korea and we've been given a match! We've been matched with a boy who is 2, from the email accompanying the call. Stellan and I see that the little one has black hair and brown eyes. We're instantly awestruck and in love. We read through everything and agree. This little one is just meant to be a part of our family.

 

Thankfully, a month later, it's summer vacation and so we leave our kids and lovely pet with one of Stellan's siblings for two weeks, while we head off to Korea to go meet our newest son for the first time in Korea, and we have an amazing time with him, spending some time alone, but also partaking in some cultural activities related to his culture heritage. We take a bit of Taekwondo, play Badminton, and visit a few temples. It hurts to leave him, but we hug him tight and promise we'll be back for him soon. I come back home and spend a few days with Stellan and myself before my brother-in-law brings our kids and cat back home. We hug them all and show them pictures of our time with their new brother who will be coming home very soon. We all get together and make up his new room in the house for him -  his nursery.

 

 

In fact, it's only a month later in August that we fly back to Korea to pick up our son. Since there is overcrowding and needed space, we have to just get in and out. It's a fast and messy four day procedure, but when we arrive to the airport to see all of our family - my mother, Stellan's parents, my brothers and sisters-in-law, and all my nieces and nephews, along with our kids - have banners welcoming the family home, as we walk over and introduce them now all in person to Callan Mason van de Laar, the newest member of the family.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

It's been about two years since we welcomed Callan into our family. Unfortunately, tragedy has struck. As surprising as it is, about two years ago, I reconnected with Ashton surprisingly, at a mommy and me class, and the two of us became friends. She had matured a lot since I last saw her. Apparently it was a new thing since she had turned her life around, after getting pregnant on a one night stand and having her son, Dante Aspen Shepard. We started having play dates with our kids and actually gotten along quite so much so that now that she and her boyfriend, Henry Lee Bennington,  are expecting a baby and she has asked Stellan and I to be the god parents and we couldn't be happier. Sadly, something went wrong. Only a few months after their daughter,Angel Ventura Bennington was born, Ashton and Henry are a part of a tragic car accident and die on impact. Thankfully, the kids were at home that night with a babysitter and are fine.

 

The news devastates me when I get the call the night after, and what is even more shocking is that I find out that Stellan and I have been listed in their will to inherit not only a large lump sum of money, as well as managing trusts for both of their children, but they would like Stellan and I to be the guardians of their children and adopt them. Ashton was an only child of a single father who passed away during our time in college, and Henry was the only child of parents who are quite old now and are in no shape to take on a three year old and a three month old full time.

 

While we are stunned at first, we both know there is no one else out there to take in these children, but the two of us. If we decline, they will end up in the foster system, and will probably end up being separated from one another. It's not a pretty picture. Their best chance at remaining together and being able to have a relationship with their grandparents is Stellan and I. We already adore and love Dante from spending time with him, and my heart breaks at the idea of saying no to him, and so after taking another night talking with Stellan, we both decide to go through with it and adopt them.

 

Most of the paper work is set up and we have Cat look over it just to make sure everything is correct in the paper work before signing it. They're currently spending the weekend with their grandparents while Stellan set up a room for them. As soon as it's done, we call their grandparents and arrange to pick Dante and Angel up from them.

 

We bring them home and they're quiet at first, but Callan gives Dante a big hug and takes him over to play some games with Levi, Haven and Anna, and it makes me happy to see how intuitive my kids are at cheering Dante up, while I rock Angel and call up my mother and inform her of what is going on and asking her to come stay with me for a few days to help out with getting everything settled. My mother agrees and doesn't mind at all, feeling saddened beyond belief for the poor kids. It's rough at first. Dante is constantly asking for his mommy and daddy and has some nightmares, and the little one still does not sleep through the night. Thankfully, my mother's help makes it better the first few weeks and it becomes routine for us all and we settle in. Now, I couldn't imagine my life without them both living with us. Stellan and I decide to make everything more official by hyphenating Dante and Angel's last names with our own. That way, they are a part of our family without losing their old family.

 

Three short months later, and it seems as if Dante and Angel have always been a part of our family. They fit into our daily life, and it's like they have always been there with us. What surprises me is when I get a call from Cat. Things had been so busy that I had forgotten that before I'd even taken Dante and Angel in, we had been looking into fostering and or adopting another child domestically. There is a child in need of a placement, a little girl who has blonde hair and blue eyes, and was left at a fire station. There is no other information on her, but a doctor calculated a close to approximate age as just about one year old.

 

I feel stressed about the idea, but Cat explains that I am the fourth person she's called and the last person on her list before the child will have to be sent to a home. I agree to take the little one in just for now, until she can find another place to stay. For now though, she needs a name, so Stellan and I use some names we had considered if we had more children and call her - Meadow Rowena - instead of Jane Doe. As time progresses though, it's been a month, and the makeshift room we've had for Meadow had become a full on room. She's seemingly settled in, and so we agreed to foster her, instead of just being a continued emergency placement.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

It's been three years since we welcomed home our last child, and since then, we have officially adopted Meadow, who we were previously fostering. Things have been fantastic and recently, I retired from my job - I enjoyed the job a lot, but I wanted to do something else. I decided to open my own lab (specifically for Forensic Anthropology). Opening my own lab has allowed me more time at home, to spend time with my kids and to get them involved with my lab to help teach them a good work ethic and skills for themselves.

 

Things have been good with the running of my lab, taking time with my children and even playing with Pepper more often. I feel more carefree and at home, and with my kids getting older, I can't help wanting to hold another baby in my arms. I speak to Stellan about it and he feels similarly about the whole thing. So I call Cat and let her know we'd like to be put on the list, and that by the end of the week, we'll have an updated baby book. Things progress amiably, and the older kids help make it and everything. It's a fun family bonding experience for us all and once it's done, we send it off to Cat so she can set it up.

 

In fact, things have been going so well, with the expansion of our family and large income increase, thanks to how well my lab has been doing, we decide to buy the home for sale next to our own. We bulldoze the home and have our family move into an apartment for 3 months. During this time, we hire a construction crew and have them expand upon our property and merge things, expanding upon our home, adding 3 rooms to our home, as well as expanding upon our home adding a playroom for the kids, as well as a playroom for Pepper. We also add a greenhouse and another pool in the living room.

 

Once the construction is done and we move in, we're honestly in love and so are the kids. They're all happy to have their own rooms and not be so cramped as it was at the temporary housing, while we were waiting for the construction to be done. The even better news is just a few weeks after moving back in, I get a call from Cat. She's found us a match! A young woman who is in the middle of attending law school, she and her now ex-boyfriend got pregnant, and while they had thought about keeping them at first, realized they could barely keep a relationship working, let alone take care of two - yes, two - babies. The woman is expecting twins. However, before she agrees to finalize anything, she would like to meet Stellan and I to see if she feels as comfortable with us as she did when reading our family book.

 

A week later, we meet her. Caroline Joanna Murray is amazing. A well put together young woman, we talk for a while, and find some common ground (we're both avid watchers of The Food Network), which helps ease us all into conversation. It's much different than when we dealt with Jessica. It seems Caroline has a plan for her life and knows what she wants to do, and is working for it, which impresses Stellan and I quite a lot.  After we speak for a few hours, Caroline admits she feels rather confident with having her children be adopted into our family. She feels that we are loving and caring people, and in the photo book, our family looks happy and we're doing all these fantastic things, which is what she wants for her babies. The three of us all agree on wanting this, and the only thing Caroline would like us to do is pay for health care costs, nothing more, and that is fine. So we call up Cat and she agrees to work on a contract for us all to sign soon. We say our goodbyes and head back home to our kids and are excited to see them. We all have a family movie night and settle in.

 

A few days later, Cat faxes over the contract to us, and in it is everything we discussed with Caroline. We'll pay for her pregnancy-related medical costs, and in addition, she would like a nearly closed adoption - she would just like yearly updates on their birthday with pictures and a letter just talking about them and how they've been doing. As long as no contact is initiated, we're happy and this is no hardship to complete for the woman gifting us two precious babies to care for and love. Stellan and I sign the contract and move on from there and inform the kids they'll be getting not just one, but two more little siblings (Levi and Callan seem to be the most excited, while Meadow is just a tad bit excited, and neither Haven or Anneliese seem to care - they're indifferent to the idea; Dante and Angel are a bit skeptical - This kind of makes Stellan and I a bit nervous, but we pray for the best). 

 

A month later, we get an excited call from Cat, as Caroline visited the doctor that day and found out that we will be expecting a boy and a girl, and we're thrilled. Cat promises to mail us the pictures of the sonograms, and everything else from the doctor's visit to keep us informed. 

 

Now that we know the gender of the twins, the family and I take one of the guest rooms we have, and change it into a nursery for them. For now they'll share, to make life a little easier for Stellan and I when we have to do late night feedings, and when they're a little older we'll give them rooms of their own.  The new nursery.

 

The next four months pass in a flurry, and I get a call from Cat that Caroline has started labor before our planned c-section date, and so she's going to the hospital now to do it. I frantically call up all my family. My mother rushes over to watch the kids while Stellan and I head off to the hospital. Caroline doesn't want us in the room, and we respect that, waiting in the lounge as the hours pass, but soon enough Cat comes out to inform us both babies are happy and healthy - ten fingers and ten toes. The oldest is five pounds and six ounces and eighteen inches long while the younger twin is five pounds even and nineteen inches long.Caroline spends an hour with each baby, gifting them hand knitted blankets and hats she made for them, before kissing each on the head and handing them to us with tears in her eyes. She thanks us for loving them and asks that we move into a different room so she can rest, and we do. Staring at our beautiful little ones, Baby A has brown hair and blue eyes, while Baby B has red hair and green eyes, and as we look at them, we know the names we picked fit them perfect, Aryan Jonah and Bryn Carson van de Laar, and more than that, we know they're meant for our family, and with them, our family finally feels complete. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

It's been nine years since we adopted our last children, and a lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same. Since these past nine years, we've opened not just one, but two more off shoots of our original business, Jo-Van, and Stellan has retired from his own job to help me run the lab, and we both enjoy working together, and it helps fulfill another part of our relationship that we had never done before. Plus, with a lot of things going so well, we've enjoyed seeing our kids grow up and become more of themselves.

 

However, growing up at times comes with certain difficulties, and lately some of the children have been having a few problems with their behavior and school.
 

Anneliese has an attitude problem. It started when she came home one day after school and throwing her backpack on the floor and rushing up to her bedroom. It turns out she has had a fight with her boyfriend, and because of this, she refuses to listen to her father or I. She thinks that just because she is having a hard time she doesn't have to follow the rules. She always argues with Stellan and I when we wake her up for school, and furthermore, it causes a fuss with the bus when she is consistently leaving 10 minutes late.

 

Dante has gotten someone pregnant. Stellan and I are really disappointed in him as he is only 16 years old, and is not taking anything seriously. He's not failing in school, but he is coming awfully close. He doesn't care about anyone but himself, so it's no surprise that the girl he got pregnant is filing for full custody for their unborn child. She is a cheerleader at their school, who is a year and a half older than him, and she comes from a wealthy family. Her father is a big shot lawyer and her mom is in Politics (not exactly sure what - I heard this through the grapevine). We have told Dante numerous times about wearing a condom, but of course as teenagers do - doesn't listen.

 

Meadow is failing in school. We are not exactly sure what's going on with her, as she locks herself in her room from the time she gets off of school until she goes back the next day. We can't ever coax her downstairs and eat a meal with the family for a change, as she doesn't have it and likes to do her own thing. We don't know of any boyfriend as far as we've heard, but we're still not sure what is causing her grades to go down. The girl is a walking mystery. Stellan and I are having a good chat with her teachers shortly. 

 

Aryan has been starting fights in school. This has been going on for about a month now. His father and I have been getting calls from his school at least three times a week about him harassing younger students. This is what was happening in the beginning, though. As of late, he has been suspended since an incident last week has put two students in the hospital. One had his nose broken while the other had to get stitches in his mouth. It's a miracle that Aryan wasn't expelled. The boys' parents are looking to sue us. Aryan has been grounded for the rest of the school year, until Stellan and I can get to the root of the problem.

 

Thankfully, Levi, Haven, Callan, Angel, and Bryn haven't had a problem.

 

With all of this happening at once, Stellan and I have decided to have the kids switch out of their schools, into a private one, away from any previous bad influence or place that might be giving our kids trouble, and hope that perhaps a change of pace will help the children to settle down and become a bit happier. Once the switch happens and the children have started school again, we notice if the problems have gone away, or if they got worse.

 

Haven was doing fine up until we moved. She's no longer in school, but she did come home one day and tell us that she got pregnant from some guy at this party she went to, a few weeks prior. She doesn't know who he is as she was really wasted when it all happened. Stellan and I were disappointed in her, but we warmed up to the idea, soon enough, and we're here for her and her child when he/she is born. 3 months later, while Haven is getting a sonogram, we find out that she is having a baby boy. She decides to name him Zephyr Roman van de Laar.

 

With the change in schools, Anneliese has been improving. Slightly, but still better than nothing. She has broken up with her boyfriend, and is seeing someone else now. He remains a mystery, as Anneliese still isn't talking to us a lot. From what we hear, he seems to be a very nice guy (much nicer than the last one). At least Anna eats with us now. 

 

With the arrival of his child coming soon, Dante still hasn't learned a thing. He's not doing better and is ignoring the mother of his child, Christa Marie Davenport (we finally learned her name), even more than before. She's trying to straighten herself up, but he's still messing around with other girls, and not paying any attention to her. The mother has decided on going to college and she wants us to take her unborn child in. Stellan and I are stunned at first, as her parents are more than capable of taking care of the child, but she gives us an ultimatum - either we take the baby or it's being put up for adoption. It's become apparent that her parents are disowning her, and forcing her to leave. Of course, we are not going to let our grandchild's mother not be able to see her child, so we move her and the unborn child of our son in, so they have to both raise it. I go with her to get a sonogram one day, and we find out that the baby is a boy. Actually, make that TWO boys! Yes, they are having twins, to make matters worse. Dante had wanted no part in naming his own sons. The baby's mother named them River Knox and Carter Jett Davenport-van de Laar. She hypenated their last names together.

 

Meadow's grades are getting better. She no longer locks herself in her room all day, and Stellan and I have been able to talk to her. We found out the reasoning behind her failing grades. She has been having a lot of issues with her best friend - they stopped talking entirely, and that put her in a deep depression. She wasn't eating, doing her homework, or sleeping. She told us that she was being idle in her room all day, doing nothing but writing in her diary and listening to music. And we also came to find out that she wasn't really going to school at all! When she would "leave" in the morning, she was really walking a couple blocks and coming back when she knew we were at work. Needless to say, she is now grounded and we have gotten into trouble with the school and the police. But since she started her new school, she has been talking to a guidance counselor and has started seeing a therapist, so this has changed her mood drastically.

 

Aryan is improving. He's still not particularly nice to anyone in school, but the fights have - mostly - come to a halt. He a had a little incident with a boy twice his size last week. The older kid tried to stuff Aryan into a trashcan, so he punched him in the face. Sadly, one of the teachers who was coming around the corner, saw this and naturally thought that Aryan instigated it, so Aryan was the one who got in trouble, not the older kid. Despite this, we still don't know what started all these fights. Aryan claims that he doesn't even know. Stellan just thinks that he is going through a phase. He's only 9 years old. 

 

Levi, Callan, Angel and Bryn are still doing well.
 

While we weren't expecting grandchildren so early, we love the newest additions to the family.

 

The van de Laar Family

 

DW: Rhiannon Maisie van de Laar (nee Jørgensen) [54] {Red Hair and Blue Eyes}

DH: Stellan Felix van de Laar [50] {Black Hair and Green Eyes}

 

DAS: Levi Josiah van de Laar [21] {Blonde Hair and Brown Eyes}

DAD: Haven Stella van de Laar [20] {Black Hair and Brown Eyes}

DAS: Callan Mason van de Laar [17] {Black Hair and Brown Eyes}

DAD: Anneliese Sophia van de Laar [16] {Red Hair and Hazel Eyes}

DAS: Dante Aspen Shepard-van de Laar [16] {Red Hair and Hazel Eyes}

DAD: Meadow Rowena van de Laar [14] {Blonde Hair and Blue Eyes}

DAD: Angel Ventura Bennington-van de Laar [13] {Blonde Hair and Green Eyes}

DAS: Aryan Jonah van de Laar [9] {Brown Hair and Blue Eyes}

DAD: Bryn Carson van de Laar [9] {Red Hair and Green Eyes} 

 

Cat: Pepper [15] {Male, Persian}

 

Rhi and Stel with; 

 

Levi, HavenCalAnnaDanteMeadowAngelAry Bryn Pep

 

The van de Laar Family

 

DM: Haven Stella van de Laar [20] {Black Hair and Brown Eyes}

 

DS: Zephyr Roman van de Laar [0] {Black Hair and Brown Eyes}

 

Haven with;

 

Zephyr

 

The Davenport-van de Laar Family

 

DF: Dante Aspen Shepard-van de Laar [16] {Red Hair and Hazel Eyes}

DM: Christa Marie Davenport [17] {Blonde Hair and Blue Eyes}

 

DS: River Knox Davenport-van de Laar [0] {Blonde Hair and Blue Eyes}

DS: Carter Jett Davenport-van de Laar [0] {Blonde Hair and Blue Eyes}

 

Dante and Chris with;

 

River & Carter



#9 RainstreamofSpiritClan

RainstreamofSpiritClan

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Posted 02 June 2017 - 01:33 AM

It's been nine years since you adopted your last children and a lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same - since these past nine years you've opened not just one, but two more off shoots of your original business, The Kid's Place and Little Blessings Childcare Center, and Caspian has retired from their own job to help you run the business and you both enjoy working together and it helps fulfill another part of your relationship that you had never done before (and it really helps to have Caspian to take care of the accounting parts of the business, since he's a professional). Plus with a lot of things going so well, you've enjoyed seeing your kids grow up and become more of themselves.

 

However, growing up at times comes with certain difficulties and lately some of the children have been having a few problems with their behavior and school.

 Iris, who is currently 21 and still lives at home while attending a local university, has been having some attitude problems recently, possibly due to the pressures of college and becoming an adult.

 

Axel has not been having any problems, thankfully! He's in his senior year at high school and is trying to decide what college to go to.

 

Serena, however, has been having some attitude problems. She seems to be struggling, wanting independence, yet also still wanting to be a child.

 

Lucian is not having any problems.

 

Xanthe is not having any problems. She is enjoying her first year of high school.

 

Rowena is having some attitude problems. These seem to stem mostly from having fallen in with some friends who like to think of themselves as "bad girls" and "rebels". She's been smoking and drinking as well.

 

Bailey is not having any problems. (I actually rolled pregnancy for her twice, but she's too young.)

 

Aviana is having some attitude problemsWe believe this may stem from the adjustment of leaving middle school and becoming a high schooler.

 

Micah is not having any problems. (Rolled pregnancy at first, then rolled again.)

 

Aiden is having some attitude problems. He has become rather defiant and disobedient as of late.

 

With all of this happening at once, you and Caspian  have decided to have the kids switch out of their schools into a private one, away from any previous bad influence or place that might be giving your kids trouble,  and hope that perhaps a change of pace will help the children to settle down and become a bit happier. Once the switch happens and the children have started school again, we notice that the children's problems are:

 

Iris' attitude problems have improved. We found out her college classes were really stressing her out, she switched to a different major and is much happier with her new courses.

 

Unfortunately, Serena's attitude problems have not shown any improvement yet. We hope we'll be able to find a way to help her through this.

 

Getting Rowena away from the bad influences did not have the effect that we hoped, she just fell in with a similar crowd of girls at her new school.

 

Aviana's attitude problems had seemed to be improving, but then we found out to our shock that she was pregnant. She met her first boyfriend at her new school and at a party one night both of them were pressured to drink and got drunk and ended up making some poor choices. Aviana is frightened to be pregnant so early, but she has decided to keep her baby, nd we have promised to support her and help her care for it. At this point Aviana's boyfriend, Liam Alexander James will not be involved in his child's life, as when his parents found out about Aviana's pregnancy they chose to take him out of the school and move away.

 

Aiden's attitude problems have improved greatly! He is doing great at his new school and has learned that our rules exist for his own good and not to "stop him from having any fun."

 

About nine months later Aviana gives birth to a baby girl. She has red hair (like her father) and blue eyes. Aviana names her Callista Wren Lucas. While these weren't the circumstances we would have chosen for her to be born,  Callista will grow up very loved.

 

While we weren't expecting grandchildren so early, we love the newest addition to the family.

 

donna4.jpg

 

----

 

DH: Caspian Felix Lucas  Looks (51, red hair and green eyes)

DW: Hermione Nessa Lucas Looks (52,blonde hair and green eyes)

DAD: Iris Mae Lucas Looks (21, blonde hair and brown eyes) 

DAS/DAD: Axel Hermes Lucas Looks and Serena Cassandra Lucas Looks (18, auburn hair and blue eyes, South Afican) 

DAS: Lucian Emery Lucas Looks (15, red hair and hazel eyes)

DAD: Xanthe Felicity Lucas Looks (14, black hair and brown eyes, Korean) 

DAD: Rowena Acantha Wellington-Lucas Looks (16, black hair and brown eyes)

DAD: Bailey Evangeline Wellington-Lucas Looks (13, blonde hair and blue eyes)

DAD: Aviana Lily Lucas Looks (14, black hair and green eyes)

DAS/DAS: Micah Stellan Looks (red hair and green eyes) and Aiden Astraeus Looks (red hair and brown eyes) (9)

 

DGD: Callista Wren Lucas (newborn, red hair and blue eyes)

 

 

DCat: Godric Looks

 

----

 

Extended Family

 

Maternal Grandmother: Elizabeth Anne Hall

 

Paternal Grandfather: Arthur Josiah Lucas

Paternal Grandmother: Cora Nicole Lucas

 

Aunts, Uncles, Cousins:

 

DH: Josiah Roman Redwood

DW: Clarissa Mae Redwood

DS: Levi Cole Redwood

DS/DS: Nicholas Lucas Redwood and Nathan Jackson Redwood

DS: Simon Quinn Redwood

DS: Oliver Julian Redwood

 

DH: Tobias Homer Lucas

DW: Lydia Ruth Lucas

DD: Addison Brooke Lucas

DS: Andrew Jack Lucas

DD: Ava Kate Lucas

 

DH: Judah Phineas Lucas

DW: Violet Elsie Lucas

DD: Charlotte Grace Lucas

DS: Liam Elijah Lucas

DD: Isabel Hope Lucas

DD: Olivia Paige Lucas

DD: Sophia Claire Lucas

 

DH: August Jasper Raven

DW: Amity Susannah Raven

DS/DS: Gabriel Isaiah Raven and Isaac Gregory Raven

 DD: Emma Faith Raven

 

DH: Amos Chester Lucas

DW: Ivy Hazel Lucas

DS: Noah Andrew Lucas

DD: Felicity Helen Lucas "Lissy"

DD:Lily Gabriella Lucas

DD: Miranda Rose Lucas

DD: Juliana Addison Lucas



#10 MalloryMae

MalloryMae

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Posted 14 February 2019 - 10:03 PM

Your name is Eva Isobel Jansson, you have red hair and brown eyes and you're 20 years old. You're a student at Yale University and you're pursuing a major in English. Ever since you've come to college, you've always been focused on your studies, you've worked very hard to get into Take and need to maintain a certain GPA to continue getting your scholarship money to enable you to continue, the second being you need to be able to get scholarships to go on and further your education.

 

However, today is the last day of your junior year of undergrad and you've just taken your final exam, you're thrilled, and feel like you've passed all your classes with flying colors and you could not be more ecstatic. All you want to do now is sleep, maybe watch some netflix, but your roommate, Leslie Schuyler Jens,  insists you accompany her to the party to make sure she gets home safe since she plans on drinking. You loathe the idea, but she did help you out studying for your final in Calculus. So, you accompany her to the party and watch her have a good time and hang out on the outskirts of the party.

 

Suddenly, a guy comes up to you. You dismiss him at first, but he comments about my favorite TV show which kind of catches your interest. He's got black hair and hazel eyes and introduces himself as Stellan Otto Reynders, he's 18 years old. You start talking to Stellan and find out about them, they're apparently legacies of the university, went to prep schools their whole life, have traveled the world with their bourgeois family and while that would usually make you feel a bit of a chip on your shoulder, for some reason, it doesn't with him. You find them charming. You also find out that Stellan is majoring in Biology and the way they speak about their major so passionately entices you. You talk for hours before your roommate stumbles over. Realizing you need to get her home, but not wanting the conversation with Stellan to end so you exchange numbers and promise to call them later. You leave with your roommate and head back to your dorm, feeling much happier than when you arrived at the party.


~


It's been ten years since the night of the party and you honestly cannot help but to look back fondly on it. It's the first night you met Stellan who has now become your husband. You've both graduated from not only your undergrad programs, but from your respective graduate school programs and are each working in your dream jobs - Editor and Biology Professor. You and Stellan could not be happier right now. However, there does seem to be something missing. The pitter patter of little feet. So, you and Stellan decide to start trying for a family, you spend 1 year trying and failing to get pregnant, but nothing happens. No pregnancy.

 

You see a fertility doctor who unfortunately informs you that between the two of you there is a low sperm count and apparently a previously undiagnosed case of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome between you. The chance of you two having a biological child together is next to near impossible. The first thought of it stuns you both, you go home with that knowledge and both discuss some options, but you mostly grieve your loss. Both you and Stellan have always wanted a big family, you as an only child and then Stellan comes from a big family with a slew of brothers and sisters. 
 

It takes you 4 months to finally broach the subject of what you two want to do next, stay childless or look into adoption. It's an easy discussion between us and we decide we want to look into adoption. The first thing we decide is we want to look into both international adoption and into domestic adoption. It takes us some time to find an agency to work with and then to get our home looked into and approved for viability. It's a longer process then expected, but a year later you've been set up by the agency and made an adoption book and just hoped that you would be matched with someone; then one day you were.

 

Your case worker informs you that you've been chosen by a young teen, Jennifer Sophia Holmes, who has fallen pregnant. She wants the adoption to be closed. While you feel sorry for the girl, an excitement does well inside of your chest. You and Stellan want this, you want to be parents. You meet with Jen and she comes to your house. You all talk and in the end, you sign the papers. You agree to help pay for the cost of her pregnancy from now on, from making sure her medical bills are paid, new maternity clothes are purchased and help her with getting good healthy food. Other than that there is minimal contact which works well for all parties. 

 

We find out at the six month mark that Jen is expecting a boy. Either sex would have been okay, but you and Stellan are just so thrilled. The first thing you both do is go to half a dozen baby stores and purchase all the things you have always wanted to buy. You spend hours after, well into the night and wee hours of the morning setting up a nursery. It looks so beautiful and you honestly cry. You never thought that first night after seeing the infertility doctor you would ever get to set up a nursery.

 

The rest of the pregnancy goes by so fast, I work through the whole situation by working extra hours and then well, it happens. Jen goes into labor. It's a quick one and we're there the whole time in the waiting room. Your little one is born perfect with red hair and hazel eyes weighing in at 7 pounds and 9 ounces and 23 inches long. Jen signs away her rights without ever seeing him. You feel incredible when you look down and just know Otto Felix Jansson-Reynders is coming home with you. Where they belong and you and Stellan feel such joy as you strap them into their car seat to take Otto home.


~


It has been a year since you welcomed Otto into your family and both you and Stellan love being parents, while at times its very hard considering you both work demanding jobs and with you having been promoted up a position to Senior Editor, but thanks to help from your mother, Sarah Patricia {nee Standon} Jansson, you know Otto is always in good hands even if you and Stellan are busy with work.

 

However, later that week you, Stellan and Otto attend his family's yearly reunion. You're staying with his parents, Florencia Gertrude {nee Sanbe} Reyners 'Flora' and Simon Atticus Reyners, while you do so. You love hanging out with all of his siblings, Rufus Humphrey Reyners, Dexter Judah Reyners, and Veronica Amity {nee Jansson} Kurra, their spouses, Tess Louisa {nee Burnwood} Reyners, Hazel Beatrix {nee Caskal} Reyners, and Oscar Frederick Kurra and all your nieces and nephews as Stellan is the youngest child in his family. They're always talking to you guys and giving advice about child rearing, relationships, etc and while irksome at times you know it all comes from a good and loving place. Later, when speaking to Dexter, they ask you if you plan to have anymore kids or if you guys just plan to have Otto. You offhandedly comment that you would like more kids, but are unsure when you and Stellan intend to look into further adoption and go back to talking about other things, but the thought does seem to stay with you a bit.

 
Stellan's Family

DW: Florencia 'Flora' Gertrude {nee Sanbe} Reyners
DH: Simon Atticus Reyners

DS: Rufus Humphrey Reyners
DS: Dexter Judah Reyners
DD: Veronica Amity {nee Reyners} Kurra
DS: Stellan Otto Reyners

Flora & Simon with Rufus, Dexter, Veronica, and Stellan.


DH: Rufus Humphrey Reyners
DW: Tess Louisa {nee Burnwood} Reyners

DD: Sloane Juliana Reyners
DS: Nathan Henry Reyners
DD: Thea Claire Reyners
DS: Forrest Levi Reyners
DS: Jasper Dashiell Reyners

Rufus & Tess with Sloane, Nathan, Thea, Forrest, and Jasper.


DH: Dexter Judah Reyners
DW: Hazel Beatrix {nee Caskal} Reyners

DS: Leo Sebastian Reyners
DS: Ezra Truman Reyners
DD: Zoe Violet Reyners
DD: Maya Juliet Reyners
DD: Bella Charlotte Reyners
DD: Lily Margaret Reyners
DS: Max Quentin Reyners
DS: Eli Julian Reyners

Dexter & Hazel with Leo, Ezra, Zoe, Maya, Bella, Lily, Max, and Eli.


DW: Veronica Amity {nee Reyners} Kurra
DH: Oscar Frederick Kurra

DS: Jackson Oscar Kurra
DS: Owen Frederick Kurra
DD: Grace Flora Kurra
DD: Amelia Eleanor Kurra
DS: Lucas Simon Kurra

Veronica & Oscar with Jackson, Owen, Grace, Amelia, and Lucas.


The night after the reunion and after coming home from work and putting Otto to bed, you and Stellan are reading in bed when he brings back up the fact that you both still would like to adopt internationally and that that can take quite a bit of time. You agree with him having known other people in the adoption community in online support groups who have waited years, you know you just got very lucky with Otto. You both agree to go to bed and place a call with your case worker and agency tomorrow about paper work considering the likely occurrence of a two to four year wait to be matched up with a child.

 

The next day on your lunch break you place a call to your agent, Koala Johnson, and she agrees it would be good to start working through the papers since it could take some time. Koala explains which countries they have current associations with and informs you that you and Stellan need to pick one to start the process. We chit chat a little more about how Otto is doing before hanging up and heading back to work that day, extremely excited.

 

That night you ask Stellan's oldest sibling and their spouse - Rufus and Tess - to watch Otto so you and Stellan can decide on which country you want to adopt from. After leaving Otto you go out and have a nice dinner together for the first time in awhile and savor it, making some small work talk before hitting to harder subjects. You discuss some of the places that intrigue you both, you make it down to your top three locations, Russia, Ethiopia and Portugal, eventually you end up deciding on Ethiopia.

 

Later that night you and Stellan send an email off to your agent to get the ball rolling on the process. The next day you pick up Otto from Stellan's sibling and feel refreshed and excited about your decision. Over the next couple of months, both you and Stellan work through the paper work, have your home visits and then hit the dry spell you knew would hit, but you fill it with exciting things including your first family vacation with Otto.

 

It takes some time for you to decide, but you end up picking Hershey Park in Pennsylvania. You and Stellan pick a less crowded week to take off, not around traditional holidays and then spend said week with your family making memories and taking a ton of photos.

 

Sadly, even after that you still haven't heard much back from your agent other then she's still looking to match you and Stellan with a child. You try not to feel disheartened by the time frame and continue to enjoy life as it is now. You get into a routine again with Stellan and Otto, and your monthly discussions with your case worker to check in until it's been about a year and a half since you put in the paper work and Otto is just a month away from turning three! You can't believe ho big they've gotten.

 

While shopping for themed thing for Otto's party, they're having a Super Heroes theme, you get a call from your agent. They've found a match! You ask agent if you can call them back in a minute as your out and not at a computer to recieve the file and they agree. You rush through check out and quickly call Stellan telling them they need to get home; you've been matched! You throw everything into the car and drive home and thankfully he is there as well and you call back your agent who informs you that you've been matched with a two year-old girl and you couldn't be more thrilled. You speak with her for another hour before she sends the file and you open it up, look through pictures and feel your heart melt. You and Stellan browse through it a little more before leaving to go pick up Otto from a day with Stellan's parents.

 

You get home and Stellan makes dinner and you bring up having a younger sibling to Otto and they seem excited by the idea which eases some of your tension and you call back your agent and talk through the process, you set up to go do a first visit in two months when you'll be off for Christmas break from work. You, Stellan, your mother and Otto fly off to Ethiopia and meet your precious baby, she has black hair and brown eyes, for the first time, she's adorable and down right perfect and you fall in love with her, at the end of the week and a half when you have to say goodbye, you can't imagine anything more painful, but your mother and Stellan help you get through it. You'll be returning for them soon enough.

 

As soon as your family gets home, you start to set up a nursery for your little one. You get Otto involved with painting and helping to set it all up and the next thing you know its been another month and you and Stellan travel back to Ethiopia to go pick up your little one for good, to take home, and when you arrive, Stellan's whole family, your mother and Otto are there with all the food, gifts and babysitting offers you could ever want; of course what they're all eagerly awaiting is news your glad to give as you inform them of the name you've chosen for your newest addition, Maggie Stella, are welcome joyfully into the Jansson-Reyners clan.


~


It has been two years since you welcomed your last child and things have been going well, you're currently in waiting for your next adoption from Haiti, which you settled the paper work on about six months ago. However, before that, you moved the family into a new home considering your growing family you knew you guys would need a little more space, thankfully Stellan got a promotion the previous year to - Professor of Advanced Biology - which has increased your house revenue by tenfold. Which helped, you ended up moving to a new house.

 

It's late at night and you're currently organizing some files for work and are surprised when the phone rings and you see its your case worker, Koala, as she had already spoken to you earlier today to once more inform you that you were still on the waiting list to be matched up with a child, and it was looking like no movement would be coming soon at all. You pick up the phone to answer and ask your social worker why they're calling so late and she informs you she's got some interesting news and a proposal for you and Stellan it appears that the birth mother of Otto has fallen pregnant again which was a huge blow for her, she's in college and trying to make the most of her life. Once more she's looking to adopt out her baby, and she wanted to ask you and Stellan first since the baby would be Otto's half sibling and she knows it would go to a good home if you both raised the baby. You're stunned. You ask if you have time to think about the decision before giving an answer, you need to talk to Stellan and discuss it before you make any major decisions. Koala says that's fine, but informs you the quicker the better in circumstances like this so Jen would be able to have more time to find a different family if you pick not to adopt her baby. You inform her you understand and end the conversation.

 

You finish your work and then a few hours later, Stellan comes home and they just want to go to bed, but you inform them you need to talk. You sit down in your living room with him and inform them about the situation at hand, how Jen is pregnant again and would like your family to adopt the baby. At first Stellan is as shocked as you were, but they bring up how you both want a big family. You agree and bring up all the empty space in your new large home. You both decide to sleep on it and head to bed.

 

The next morning as you're bringing your kids to school and pre-school for the day, you bring up the idea of if they might like a new brother or sister and they respond individually. Otto was excited and Maggie was happy, and this makes you feel glad. You drop all the kids off and think about what your children said and head off to work, you have a pretty good day and your co-worker even brings in her new baby, and you coo over him, he's absolutely adorable and it makes your heart yearn for another child. Later that day, when you go home, you and Stellan seem to both agree, you'd like to adopt Jen's baby. You call back your social worker and tell her that you would like to adopt the baby and she is more than pleased to hear it and you start up the process for it once more, signing things, agreeing to pay for certain costs and such.

 

Only a few months later you speak with Jen to see how she is doing and how schooling is going for her, and its good, thankfully it seems her pregnancy will be in its latent months over the summer and it won't affect her school work, she also informs you that she's found out the baby's gender that day and the baby is a - girl. You're thrilled and quickly send off a text to Stellan to let them know before wishing birth mother well and heading off your lunch break to get back to work.

 

When you get home that day you surprise your mother with the news that she'll be a grandmother again and of course she's thrilled. Then you inform the children who still don't entirely all seem so sure, but when you explain that they can help you decorate the room. maggie is very excited, but Otto seems a little more hesitant so you try and get them involved, but soon enough the nursery is done and looks fantastic. All your children now seem excited, especially Otto.

 

As the pregnancy progresses, its time to start thinking about names and you and Stellan talk back and forth having some trouble, but in the end you find some names you like and can agree on for the baby's first name, Elodie, but have trouble finding a matching middle name, but decide to leave it be for now. It'll come to you later and its not worth fighting over with Stellan.

 

Of course, nothing can go as expected and on a hot, July afternoon, Jen goes into labor three weeks early and your baby arrives! They're 6 pounds and 2 ounces and 17 inches long. This time both you and Stellan were in the delivery room for the birth and it was magical, a little scary, but magical. Your children are in the waiting room with your mother and Stellan's parents, who're all very excited to meet their new family member, and so you bring out your red haired, hazel eyed bundle of joy and finally express their full name Elodie Sophia Jansson-Reyners. You decided to give them a middle name after Jen since she truly has given you such gifts in Otto and in your newest baby. As you seem swaddled in their blanket with your mother holding her and your other children watching them with wide, excited eyes you could not find yourself ever feeling this happy before and you're so grateful.


~


It's been a year since you brought home Elodie and things have been great, you love seeing your kids together, playing and just being together. As an only child, you found yourself quite lonely growing up and seeing Otto, Maggie & Elodie all together makes your heart feel warm. It also gives you major headaches when they fight sometimes, but that's just part of the territory. One thing you also missed greatly when you were growing up was a pet, your family had a dog when you were very little, but you never really grew up with a pet and you want that for your kids. Stellan agrees having been raised with cats, dogs and ferrets his whole life. We decide the most amiable pet would probably be a cat.

 

After picking which type of animal you think would be a good fit for your family, you and Stellan go over a list of breeds, you take some votes from your friends and other family members, and end up picking Persian breed. You find a reputable breeder and get yourself on the wait list for their upcoming litter of kittens. Its three months later and you hear back, there is a little girl kitten with your name on it if we're ready. Of course we are! We bring the little one home and realize we forgot one very important thing - a name! You show off the little new family member to your kids and Stellan, every one of you submit a name into a hat - your youngest child with a little help from Stellan - list the name options. Once they're all written down you put them in a hat, shake it and pick one name - Otto's name gets picked and thus your new family member is Biscuit!

 

Soon enough, your new little fluff is settled and its nice, they're good for helping teach the kids some responsibility as they all have little chores to help out with your new pet. Plus they're cute as can be and have gained your instagram account an odd dozen or so new followers who love pictures of your adorable kitten.

 

A few weeks after you get your pet, you finally get a call from Koala that your papers have gone through to Haiti and you've been given a match! You've been matched with a girl who is only a few months old, from the email accompanying the call, you and Stellan see that the little one has black hair and brown eyes. Your instantly awestruck and in love. You read through everything and agree, this little one is just meant to be a part of your family.

 

Thankfully, a month later, its summer vacation and so you leave your kids and lovely pet with one of Stellan's siblings for two weeks while you head off to Haiti to go meet your newest child for the first time in their country and you have an amazing time with them, spending some time alone, but also partaking in some cultural activities related to their culture heritage. It hurts to leave her, but you hug her tight and promise you'll be back for her soon. You come back home and spend a few days with yourself and Stellan before you in-law brings your kids and pet back home. You hug them all and show them pictures of your time with their new sister who will be coming home very soon. You all get together and make up their new room in the house for them - nursery.

 

In fact, its only a month later in August that you fly back to Haiti to pick up your child since overcrowding and needed space you have to just get in and out, its a fast and messy four day procedure, but when you arrive to the airport to see all of your family, your mother, Stellan's parents, your brothers and sisters in law and all your nieces and nephews along with your kids with banners welcoming the family home as you walk over and introduce them now all in person to Scarlett Louise the newest member of the family.


~


It's been about two years since you welcomed Scarlett into your family. Unfortunately, tragedy has struck. As surprising as it is, about two years ago you reconnected with Leslie, surprisingly at a mommy and me class, and the two of you became friends, she had matured a lot since you last saw her, apparently it was a new thing since she had turned her life around after getting pregnant on a one night stand and having her daughter, Phoebe Acacia Jens. You two started having play dates with your kids and actually gotten along quite so much so that now that she and her boyfriend, Jaxson Hays Dubray,  are expecting a baby and she has asked you and Stellan to be the god parents and you couldn't be happier, sadly something went wrong. Only a few months after their son, Parker Bennett Dubray was born, Leslie and Jaxson are a part of a tragic car accident and die on impact. Thankfully, the kids were at home that night with a babysitter and are fine.

 

The news devastates you when you get the call the night after, and what is even more shocking is that you find out that you and Stellan have been listed in their will to inherit not only a large lump some of money, as well as managing trusts for both of their children, but they would like you and Stellan to be the guardians of their children and adopt them. Leslie was an only child of a single father who passed away during your time in college and Jaxson was the only child of parents who are quite old now and are in no shape to take on a three year old and a three month old full time.

 

While you are stunned at first, you both know there is no one else out there to take in these children, but the two of you. If you decline they will end up in the foster system, will probably end up being separated from one another, it's not a pretty picture. Their best chance at remaining together and being able to have a relationship with their grandparents is you and Stellan. You already adore and love Phoebe from spending time with them and your heart breaks at the idea of saying no to her, and so after taking another night talking with Stellan, you both decide to go through with it and adopt them.

 

Most of the paper work is set up and you have Koala look over it just to make sure everything is correct in the paper work before signing it. They're currently spending the weekend with their grandparents while you and Stellan set up a room for them. As soon as its done you call their grandparents and arrange to pick Phoebe and Parker up from them.

 

You bring them home and they're quiet at first, but Scarlett gives Phoebe a big hug and takes her over to play some games with Otto, Maggie, and Elodie, and it makes you happy to see how intuitive your kids are at cheering Phoebe up while you rock Parker and call up your mother, Sarah, informing her of what is going on and asking her to come stay with you for a few days to help out with getting everything settled. Your mother agrees and doesn't mind at all, feeling saddened beyond belief for the poor kids. It's rough at first, Phoebe is constantly asking for her mommy and daddy and has some nightmares and the little one still does not sleep through the night, thankfully your mother's help makes it better the first few weeks and it becomes routine for you all and you settle in. Now, you couldn't imagine your life without them both living with you. You and Stellan decide to make everything more official by hyphenating Phoebe and Parker's last names with your own. That way they are a part of your family without loosing their old family.

 

Three short months later and it seems as if Phoebe and Parker have always been a part of your family. They fit into your daily life and its like they have always been there with you. What surprises you is when you get a call from Koala, things had been so busy that you had forgotten that before you'd even taken Phoebe and Parker you had been looking into fostering and or adopting another child domestically. There is a child in need of a placement, a little boy who had blonde hair and blue eyes and was left at a fire station, there is no other information on them, but a doctor calculated a close to approximate age as just about one year old.

 

You feel stressed about the idea, but Koala explains that you are the fourth person she's called and the last person on her list before the child will have to be sent to a home. You agree to take the little one in just for now, until they can find another place to stay. For now though, they need a name, so you and Stellan use some names you had considered if you had more children and call them - Flynn Orion - instead john/jane doe. As time progress though, its been a month, and the makeshift room you've had for Flynn had become a full on room. They've seemingly settled in and so you agreed to foster them instead of just being a continued emergency placement.


~


It's been three years since you welcomed home your last child and since then you have officially adopted, Flynn, who  you were previously fostering. Things have been fantastic and recently you retired from your job - you enjoyed the job a lot, but you wanted to do something else. You decided to open your own business - Jansson Editions, which is an online newspaper editing company. Opening your own business has allowed you more time at home, to spend with your kids and to get them involved with your business to help teach them a good work ethic and skills for themselves.

 

Things have been good with the running of your business, taking time with your children and even playing with Biscuit more often. You feel more carefree and at home and with your kids getting older - you can't help wanting to hold another baby in your arms. You speak to Stellan about it and they feel similarly about the whole thing - so you call Koala and let them know you'd like to be put on the list and you'll have an updated baby book ready by the end of the week. Things progress amiably and the older kids help make it and everything. It's a fun family bonding experience for you all and once its done you send it off to Koala so she can set it up.

 

In fact things have been going so well, and with the expansion of your family and large income increase thanks to how well your business has been doing you decide to buy the home for sale next to your own. You bulldoze the home and have your family move into a single story house for 2 months. During this time you hire a construction crew and have them expand upon your property and merge things expanding upon your home - adding rooms to your home as well as expanding upon your home adding certain casualties.

 

Once the construction is done and you move in you're honestly in-love and so are the kids, they're all happy to have their own rooms and not be so cramped as it was at the temporary housing while you were waiting for the construction to be done. The even better news is just a few weeks after moving back in you get a call from Koala. She's found you guys a match! A young woman who is in the middle of attending law school, she and her now ex-boyfriend got pregnant and while they had thought about keeping them at first realized they could barely keep a relationship working let alone take care of two - yes two - babies. The woman is expecting twins. However, before she agrees to finalize anything she would like to meet you and Stellan to see if she feels as comfortable with you as she did when reading your family book.

 

A week later you meet her - Rachel Caroline Irene Casimir - and she's amazing. A well put together young woman, you talk for awhile and find some common ground, which helps ease you all into conversation. It's much different then when you dealt with Jen - it seems Rachel has a plan for her life and knows what she wants to do and is working for it which impresses you and Stellan quite a lot.  After you guys speak for a few hours, Rachel admits she feels rather confident with having her children be adopted into your family. She feels that you two are loving an caring people and in the photo book your family looks happy and you're doing all these fantastic things which is what she wants for her babies. The three of you all agree on wanting this and the only thing Rachel would like you to do is pay for health care costs, nothing more and that is fine so you call up Koala and they agree to work on a contract for you all to sign soon. You say your goodbyes and head back home to your kids and are excited to see them, you all have a family movie night and settle in.

 

A few days later Koala faxes over the contract to you and in it is everything you discussed with Rachel, you'll pay for her pregnancy related medical costs and in addition she would like a nearly closed adoption - she'd just like yearly updates on their birthday with pictures and a letter just talking about them and how they've been doing. As long as no contact is initiated you're happy and this is no hardship to complete for the woman gifting you two precious babies to care for and love. You and Stellan sign the contract and move on from their and inform the kids they'll be getting not just one, but two more little siblings - the kids were thrilled, especially Parker who really wanted to be a big brother.

 

A month later you get an excited call from, Koala, as Rachel visited the doctor that day and found out that you will be expecting a boy and a girl and you're thrilled. Koala promises to mail you the pictures of the sonograms and everything else from the doctor's visit to keep you informed. 

 

Now that you know the genders of the twins, you and the family take one of the guest rooms you have now and change it into a nursery for them. For now they'll share to make life a little easier for you and Stellan when you have to do late night feedings and when they're a little older you'll give them rooms of their own.  The new nursery looks really good.

 

The next four months pass in a flurry and you get a call from Koala that Racgel has started labor before your planned c-section date and so she's going to the hospital now to do it. You frantically call up all your family, your mother rushes over to watch the kids while you and Stellan head off to the hospital. Rachel doesn't want you guys in the room and you respect that, waiting in the lounge as the hours pass, but soon enough Koala comes out to inform you both babies are happy and healthy - ten fingers and ten toes. The oldest is five pounds and six ounces and eighteen inches long while the younger twin is five pounds even and nineteen inches long. Rachel spends an hour with each baby, gifting them hand knitted blankets and hats she made for them before kissing each on the head and handing them to you with tears in her eyes, she thanks you for loving them and asks that you move into a different room so she can rest and you do. Staring at your beautiful little ones. Baby A has red hair and green eyes while Baby B had red hair and hazel eyes and as you look at them you know the names you picked fit them perfect - Elliot Casimir & Ruby Caroline - and more than that you know they're meant for your family and with them your family finally feels complete. 


~


It's been nine years since you adopted your last children and a lot has changed and a lot has stayed the same - since these past nine years you've opened not just one, but two more off shoots of your original business, Jansson National Editions and Jansson Printing and Editing Co., and Stellan has retired from their own job to help you run the business and you both enjoy working together and it helps fulfill another part of your relationship that you had never done before. Plus with a lot of things going so well, you've enjoyed seeing your kids grow up and become more of themselves.

 

However, growing up at times comes with certain difficulties and lately some of the children have been having a few problems with their behavior and school:

- Otto and his girlfriend are expecting twin girls. It was surprising news, but we couldn't be happier. Their names are River Vivienne and Lux Talia. Baby A has red hair, hazel eyes, while Baby B has brown hair, hazel eyes.
- Maggie is doing great- happy and healthy.
- Elodie is doing great- happy and healthy.
- Phoebe's grades are falling a bit, but she is working hard to get herself back on track.
- Scarlett is doing great- happy and healthy.
- Flynn is doing great- happy and healthy.
- Parker is doing great- happy and healthy.
- Elliot is doing great- happy and healthy.
- Ruby's grades are falling a bit, but she is working hard to get herself back on track.
 

With all of this happening at once, you and Stellan have decided to have the kids switch out of their schools into a private one, away from any previous bad influence or place hat might be giving your kids trouble,  and hope that perhaps a change of pace will help the children to settle down and become a bit happier. Once the switch happens and the children have started school again, we some differences:

- Otto, Anaise, and the girls are doing very well.
- Maggie is still doing great.
- Elodie is still doing great.
- Phoebe got pregnant with a little girl. She is very nervous about it all, but she'll have lots of help from you. The baby's name is Audrey Blythe. She has blonde hair, green eyes.
- Scarlett's grades are falling a bit, but she is working hard to get herself back on track.
- Flynn is doing even better than before.
- Parker's grades are falling a bit, but he is working hard to get himself back on track.
- Elliot is still doing great.
- Ruby is still doing great.

While we weren't expecting grandchildren so early, we love the newest additions to the family.


The Jansson-Reynders Family

DW: Eva Isobel Jansson [52] ~ red hair, brown eyes
DH: Stellan Otto Reynders [50] ~ black hair, hazel eyes

DAS: Otto Felix Jansson-Reynders [20] ~ red hair, hazel eyes (birth mother- Jennifer Holmes)
DAD: Maggie Stella Jansson-Reynders [19] ~ black hair, brown eyes (internationally adopted from Ethiopia)
DAD: Elodie Sophia Jansson-Reynders [15] ~ red hair, hazel eyes (birth mother- Jennifer Holmes)
DAD: Phoebe Acacia Jens-Jansson-Reynders [15] ~ red hair, green eyes (late mother- Leslie Jens)
DAD: Scarlett Louise Jansson-Reyneders [14] ~ black hair, brown eyes (internationally adopted- from Haiti)
DAS: Flynn Orion Jansson-Reynders [13] ~ blonde hair, blue eyes (unknown history)
DAS: Parker Bennett Dubray-Jansson-Reynders [12] ~ blonde hair, green eyes (late mother- Leslie Jens)
DAS/DAD: Elliot Casimir Jansson-Reynders & Ruby Caroline Jansson-Reynders [9] ~ red hair, green eyes & red hair, hazel eyes (birth mother- Rachel Casimir)

Eva & Stellan with Otto, Maggie, Elodie, Phoebe, Scarlett, Flynn, Parker, Elliot, and Ruby.


The Jansson-Reynders Family

DAS: Otto Felix Jansson-Reynders [20] ~ red hair, hazel eyes
GF: Anaise Lorelei Brink [22] ~ brown hair, blue eyes

DD/DD: River Vivienne Jansson-Reynders & Lux Talia Jansson-Reynders [infants] ~ red hair, hazel eyes & brown hair, hazel eyes

Otto & Anaise with River and Lux.


The Jens-Jansson-Reynders Family

DD: Phoebe Acacia Jens-Jansson-Reynders [15] ~ red hair, green eyes

DD: Audrey Blythe Jens-Jansson-Reynders [infant] ~ blonde hair, green eyes

Phoebe with Audrey.

#11 Meghan<3

Meghan<3

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Posted 18 February 2019 - 08:09 PM

Within nine years after the twins were born, I expanded my business and Ben retired to help me run it. What started as writing and self-publishing self-help books turned into creating a self-help lectureship series, in which myself and other psychologists traveled to speak at universities and hospitals about mental health, as well as an online life coaching business run by Ben and me.

 

We love our family, but our lives have not been without problems.

 

Our eldest, Milo, graduated high school and enrolled at Rice University in Texas to study architecture. It was hard to watch him move so far away from home, but Ben and I are so proud of his achievements.

 

When Hanna started high school, her grades started dropping. She had always been a bright student, so Ben and I were confused. We signed her up for tutoring and met with counselors at school. Eventually we found out that Hanna was being bullied at school, and this was affecting her academic performance. We made the decision for her to transfer to a private school going into 10th grade. She had a difficult time adjusting to a new environment, but soon her grades improved and after graduating, she enrolled at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia close to home.

 

Lilith was always an outgoing child and she became popular in middle and high school. When she was fifteen, she tearfully told us that she had gotten pregnant after drunkenly hooking up with a boy in her grade at a party. Ben and I were furious and disheartened but we promised to support Lilith and her baby. The father, Eli Matthew Cooper, denied ever hooking up with Lilith.  To make matters more complicated, Lilith found out she was having twins—two daughters. She named them Aurora Blythe and Lorelei Quinn Peeters.  Ben moved much of Lilith's bedroom furniture to the garage to fit the babies' cribs. Now the babies are a few months old. While we love taking care of our grandchildren, Lilith seems to take advantage of the fact that her parents will take care of the babies and continues to go out with friends. We decided to enroll her in the private school Hanna attended for the upcoming school year in hopes that a new environment and separation from her social circle will make Lilith focus more on her studies and taking care of her daughters.

 

Ivy is a straight-A student who took a liking to helping Lilith, Ben, and me care for Aurora and Lorelei.  She has recently told us that she plans to attend medical school and become a nurse in the labor and delivery department of a hospital.  Ben and I are impressed by her initiative and her natural instincts when taking care of the twins.

 

Feather grew up into a shy young girl who struggled in school.  When she was in second grade, she was diagnosed by the school psychologist with dyslexia. She attended special education classes in elementary school but struggled to keep up in middle school and fell behind the other kids. Ben and I found a local school for kids with special needs that specializes in helping kids with dyslexia prepare for college. She started at this school in ninth grade and has flourished since, making lots of friends and coming out of her shell more.  She and Ivy are still best friends and take horseback riding lessons together.

 

Gemma has a keen sense of humor and is doing well in middle school. She likes to write stories, go on hikes with Ben on the weekends, and volunteer with her Girl Scout troop.

 

Riley has a good group of friends at school and enjoys playing soccer and basketball. He wants to be a professional athlete when he grows up and is already looking forward to trying out for the high school teams in a few years.

 

Sadie has always been the more dominant twin and often bosses Wren, who is easygoing and laid-back, around.  Ben and I were called into a parent-teacher conference because Sadie had been starting fights with other girls at school by spreading false rumors and making fun of classmates behind their backs.  Ben and I were appalled to hear this.  We knew Sadie was always clever and could be bossy sometimes, but we never expected her to become vindictive or mean. Sadie had to see the school counselor once a month until the end of the school year and apologize to each of the girls she hurt. Thankfully, we started seeing a change in Sadie's behavior within just a few weeks. Per the counselor's suggestion, we moved Sadie and Wren into separate bedrooms (Sadie moved into Ivy's room and Wren had their old bedroom to herself).  Ivy has been a great influence on Sadie, and Wren's personal space has allowed her to become more independent and less passive.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

The Peeters Family

~West Chester, PA~

 

DH: Benedict Humphrey "Ben" [54]

Columbia University & University of Pennsylvania

​Chief Financial Officer, University of Pennsylvania 

DW: Finlay Cameron, née Stendhal [54]

Columbia University & New York University

Clinical Psychologist

 

DAS: Milo Atticus [21]

DAD: Hanna Bernadette [19]

DAD: Lilith Jessamine [16]

- DGD/DGD: Aurora Blythe / Lorelei Quinn [0]

DAD: Ivy Cameron [15]

DAD: Feather Delphine Ackley-Peeters [15]

DAD: Gemma Hermione [13]

DAS: Riley Seven Donahue-Peeters [12]

DAD/DAD: Sadie Claire / Wren Beatrice [9]

 

DCat: Tiger [deceased]

 

Ben & Finlay with Milo, Hanna, Lilith, Ivy, Feather, Gemma, Riley, Sadie, & Wren

Lilith, Aurora, & Lorelei

 

---

 

The Ackley/Donahue Family

~Philadelphia, PA~

 

DGF: Spencer James Ackley [deceased]

DBF: Reuben Joseph Donahue [deceased]

 

DD: Feather Delphine Ackley [15]

DS: Riley Seven Donahue [12]

 

*********************************

 

The Peeters Family

~Albany, NY~

 

DH: Byron Maxwell [89]

Cornell University

Retired Attorney

DW: Georgiana Violette, née Danforth [88]

Cornell University

Retired Paralegal

 

DS: Amos Lemuel [64]

DS: Thaddeus Alonzo "Thad" [62]

DD: Millicent Eliza "Millie" [58]

DS: Phineas Josiah [56]

DD: Cecily Maude [55]

DS: Benedict Humphrey "Ben" [54]

 

Byron & Georgiana with Amos, Thad, Millie, Phineas, Cecily, & Ben

 

~~~

 

The Peeters Family

~Ithaca, NY~

 

DH: Amos Lemuel [64]

Princeton University

Economics Professor, Cornell University

DW: Louise Dorothea, née Mulberry [61]

Sarah Lawrence College

Stay-at-Home-Mother

 

DS: Henry Nathaniel [31]

DS: Duncan Tobias [28]

DS: Colin Frederick [24]

DS: Simon George [22]

 

Amos & Louise with Henry, Duncan, Colin, & Simon

 

~~~

 

The Peeters Family

~Silicon Valley, CA~

 

​DH: Thaddeus Alonzo [62]

Stanford University

Quantitative Analyst, Google 

DW: Cora Beatrix, née Dunn [60]

Stanford University

Attorney

 

DS: Emmett Reed [29]

DD/DD: Lucy Caroline / Fiona Margaret [27]

DD: Gabriella Faith "Ella" [25]

DD: Josephine Charlotte "Josie" [24]

DD: Madeleine Tess [21]

 

Thad & Cora with Emmett, Lucy, Fiona, Ella, Josie, & Madeleine

 

~~~

 

The St. George Family

~Columbus, OH~

 

DW: Millicent Eliza "Millie," née Peeters [58]

Georgetown University

Registered Nurse

DH: Calvin Silas "Cal" [61]

Carnegie Mellon University

Stock Analyst

 

DD: Natalie Beatrice [26]

DD: Amelia Violet [23]

DS: Walker Philip [20]

 

Millie & Cal with Natalie, Amelia, & Walker

 

~~~

 

The Peeters Family

~Annapolis, MD~

 

DH: Phineas Josiah [56]

University of Virginia

CEO of Pharmaceutical Company

DW: Eloise Mae, née Bancroft [54]

University of Maryland

Public Relations Executive

 

DS: Quentin Elijah [24]

DD: Sloane Arabella [21]

DD: Olivia Zoe [18]

 

Phineas & Eloise with Quentin, Sloane, & Olivia 

 

~Athens, Georgia~

 

ex-DW: Hazel Winifred Montgomery [57]

 

DS: Harrison Jack [30]

 

Phineas & Hazel with Harrison

 

~~~

 

The Hunt Family

~Los Angeles, CA~

 

DW: Cecily Maude, née Peeters [54]

Dartmouth College

Movie Producer

DH: Arthur Sebastian [58]

University of California, Los Angeles

Anesthesiologist

 

DD: Eleanor Maisie [23]

DD: Addison Claire "Addie" [21]

DD: Isabel Daisy [18]

 

Cecily & Arthur with Eleanor, Addie, & Isabel







Also tagged with one or more of these keywords: Adoption Story CAF, Story CAF, Adoption CAF, Part 8, Part 8/9, CAF, Adoption Story, Mostly Old Game Inspirtation, Mine, Warning: Teen Pregnancy

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