This guest post is by Danielle Beattie, an adoptive mother and adoptee.
Ever since I was a young girl I knew I wanted two thing: to be a mom and to adopt a child.
I was adopted and wanted to adopt
On March 11, 2005 my first wish came true. I became a mom when I gave birth to a little boy who I named Nicolas.
But soon after, on May 9, my world came crashing down when he passed away.
A lot of people asked or told me to have another. I couldn’t. I just didn’t want to have another.
I wanted my Nicolas back but that wasn’t going to happen. I said I’ll give it three years, I would give myself three years until I would try to have another baby.
Well, three years went by. It wasn’t that I didn’t want another baby. It just never happened — that is, until almost 10 years later.
At the beginning of January 2015, I got a three-way call from my brother and his then girlfriend.
She had gotten into trouble and my brother was already doing time for some trouble he had been in and they wanted to ask me me if I would take the baby that had just been born in late November.
I talked it over quick with my significant other and we said yes we would take him. I got custody January 13, 2015 .
What a roller coaster life was for 707 days! There was so much up in the air as both birth parents where incarcerated for some time.
When the birth mother got out in March 2015 she was more interested in being young and having fun so eventually the court took her rights away.
As for my brother, it was a waiting game because the court couldn’t terminate his rights while he was incarcerated.
The court would give him a year when he was released to get the baby back.
Finally at the end of October he was released and he realized he wasn’t in a place to raise a child so he signed off to allow me to adopt.
My brother has said one day when he is older he hopes he knows why he signed off and that he gave his son to the best person he knows.
Waiting for a court date to finalize the adoption seemed like it took forever.
What a Christmas 2016 was! It was the best of my life! Kingston officially became my son — my rainbow baby!
I couldn’t imagine life without my boy and if I had to go back and do those 707 days over again without a doubt I would!
Kingston has completed our family.
Danielle Beattie is an adoptive mother in Salamanca, New York.
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