Our biggest challenge was just the fear factor, when you have to go through so many levels to make this adoption happen. In our case, we had the children in our home, but because they were aboriginal.... There were aboriginal children being removed from the foster homes when the adoption procedures began. Those children were being taken to the reserves. In our case the children came to us as newborns. We had these children as newborn babies, and we ran the risk of the band denying us the opportunity to adopt these children. It's very scary.
There are nights you do not sleep, because you hold these children.... Nobody can guarantee that it's going to happen, and you want to do what's right for the kids. So when you step out...and at times we said maybe we'll just continue fostering, because if we continue fostering and we don't make any waves, the children will stay here. But it's not in the children's best interest. The children need to have their own identity. Yes, they're aboriginal and they need to have that, but they need to have Mom and Dad. They need to relax. Our kids' grades went up. Their behaviours dropped off. They're home, and that's what every single child deserves, to grow up to be healthy and well-adjusted people in our communities.
Thank you.