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My husband and I have adopted our grandson, now 8 years old. He has been with us full time since he was 8 months old and was removed from his parents because of their drug use. We initially said we were not interested in adoption because of our age (52). But when they wanted to place him with another family for adoption, we changed our minds. After parenting him for 6 months, we couldn?t let him go. He was bonded with us and we with him. We felt that we would be his best permanency choice as we knew all the circumstances of his background. We were acquainted with his birth parents and knew the possiblilities of pre-natal drug and alcohol use. He has also had the opportunity to know his birth father and the problems drug use has caused in our family.

At retirement, we had planned to do extensive world travel. Our plans changed when our grandson came to us. We know live and travel full time in our fifth wheel trailer, homeschooling our grandson. Seeing him discover our country has been a great joy. He remembers many things from our travels which offset the trouble he has with reading and spelling due to auditory processing disorder.

Many of the other parenting grandparents we know have children who have come out of drug use homes. This has given the children many disabilities we have to deal with.

We have had many discussions about what will happen to grandson if we both die before he is an adult. Our daughter is struggling to care for her child and probably couldn?t handle another child. My husband and I were only children, so no aunts or uncles to fall back on. We finally chose a close friend who will decide where grandson goes, but not necessarily take him to raise herself.

posted 4 years, 5 months ago
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