Family: To Love, Protect, and Always Be There

Kirstina was a single mom with just one son, Aaron, but she knew she wanted siblings for him some day. As a teacher, she worked with many children who had been adopted. She looked into adoption, realized it was a possibility for her family, and got in touch with Adopt America Network. She was then provided the opportunity to open her home and her heart to children in need. She has now given 2 children a place to permanently call home through adoption and has also provided a permanent home to 2 more children!

Meet her family; Aaron, Russell, Elijah, Jade, and Serina!

Kirstina has successfully finalized two adoptions and provides a permanent home for 2 more children. Russell came into care when he was two years old and Elijah came into care as an infant. Serina and Jade are biological siblings and they became available for adoption at ages 12 and 13. Elijah spent 3 years in the system in 4 different foster homes. When Kirstina found out that he was also biologically related to Aaron, she knew he had to be a part of her family. She had also known Russell, as he was the son of her ex-husband. She took him in as her own and now has 3 sons and two daughters. In order to be able to adopt, Kirstina sought out the help of AAN and was able to be trained and homestudied! She said that she really enjoyed the experience with AAN; her training classes were fun and she met some great families who were able to relate to how she was feeling through the process.

With the help of AAN staff, Kirstina was able to go through the entire adoption process. She was successfully able to adopt Elijah and Russell and provide Aaron with the siblings he had always asked her for. She is also now able to continue opening her home to more children in need by adoption.

There were many issues that Kirstina faced through her adoption journey. It is common that if a family is adopting a child that is not local to them, they are the ones required to travel for visits and meetings. Kirstina said that she and Aaron would collect cans to help them save up money to travel for visits. Once the boys were placed in her home, the traveling issues became minimal but the boys started showing extreme behaviors. One of the boys would throw extreme fits and the other would try and hurt his brothers in the home. While seeking attention, one of them would also bang his head on the floor repeatedly. Even through the trying times of these behaviors, Kirstina was able to get the supports and the help she needed to make sure the boys were working through their painful pasts and adjusting to their new life with a family that would love, protect, and always be there for them. She loves her family very much and is happy that she was able to find them through adoption.