As you recall, our dream was for a somewhat large family. We were hoping for a balance of two boys and two girls just like mine growing up. Well, after adopting Michael, several years transpired before we had the opportunity to adopt again. We had discussed it, but just were not given the opportunity. We actually started the process toward doing foster care to adopt at one time, but the church I was pastoring in Southeastern Arkansas would not allow us to do foster care in the parsonage, due to prejudice within the congregation (whole other story).
Well, we didn't hang around that church long before we packed our bags and moved to Guymon, OK. The church there was very open to the idea of foster care, so we began the process again, I am guessing Michael was about 12 and Dawn was about 14 when we completed PRIDE training for foster care. We cared for one baby for several weeks before we learned of Nathaniel.
Nathaniel was about 10 months old when he came into our lives. He was born into foster care. His mother was raped at I think at about 15 years of age and was in foster care for several months before giving birth to him. He spent the first few months of his life with her then was placed in a seperate placement. All indications were she was a very caring person. She just couldn't deal with the responsibility and emotional trauma of raising him conspidering the circumstances surrounding his conception and birth.
We had a very supportive case worker who had basically hand picked us and Nathaniel for each other. It was a fairly traumatic experience when we first met him. He was just ten months old but weighed close to thirty pounds. He was a blank page emotionally. His only movement or expression was when he seemingly got excited he clapped his feet together. We loved him at first sight but it was scary. We had no idea how he would develope.
Of course it was a process to make him ours, but everything moved fairly quickly. We had already been approved as foster parents so there was not a lot to do there. His mother had already signed her rights away and his bio father of course was not even given the option, as he was in prison.
The Guymon Church was awesome! They embraced him like he was their own. Brother Red, our song leader, would sit in front of him at church and harass him, trying to get a response. Honestly it didn't take long until he get him to respond. Nathaniel would see him and smile from ear to ear. I followed Red's lead and would have screaming contests with him. He got pretty good at it. Mom has not forgiven me for that one. One of the Deacons, Bill Dawes, insisted on shaking his hand every time he saw him. We were at the church for about three years after Nate came into our lives, before we moved on. By the time he was two or three he was insisting on shaking hands with everybody in the congregation before church started. He became to be known as the little man.
He still meets that criteria today at 14. He has developed normally. He has some academic issues and some minor issues with his motor skills. He plays basketball though and refs soccer, and is learning to play the guitar. He likes to hang out with his dad when he does his disaster relief ministry and such. He is also a regular and dependable usher on our church of around 300. He is known for his politeness by preachers and Christians throughout the state of Oklahoma. And he's still a hand shaker.
I'm not sure where Nate is going in life. It probably won't require a great amount of academic prowess, but I am sure of this, He will touch lives everywhere he goes. By the way, I still think of him as my little man....even though he is now about 5'8" and growing every day...
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