Author: Jeannie Norris

The place won’t open for 30 minutes but cars are already lining up. Inside, Kamryn stacks empty buckets, getting the ice cream shop ready. This is his first real job and it’s important to him. “I’m saving for a car,” he says. “Right now I’m looking at a Toyota 4Runner, but that could change.”

“His first car will probably be our old Pontiac out there.”

That dad comment comes from Jeff. And even though he and Marie have been Kamryn’s parents for only a few months, all three are comfortable in their roles – and they’re happy.

Like so many others, Marie and Jeff came to us in hopes of fostering or adopting children. Young children. Toddlers. “From the beginning we said ‘no teenagers,’ ” Jeff says. “But the first weekend Kamryn came for a respite visit – and the rest, as they say, is history.”

History. Kamryn’s now includes Marie, Jeff, six cats, and Grace, the dog. Their story together will stretch far beyond Kamryn’s last two years of high school and well into the future. It will include the college years, career choices, marriage advice, and – someday – maybe even grandchildren.

As they talk about what it means to become a family at this stage, Jeff says, “Kamryn has a good head on his shoulders. We are here to help provide boundaries, keep him on track.”

Marie adds, “I think he’s further along than a lot of people his age. He knows what he wants to accomplish in the next few years and he has a big-picture mentality of his future.”

Life is a song.

Music is his love language.

Shemar has a tune on his lips and a song for everything: His plastic tools – there’s a song for his wrench when he “fixes” things around the house – and the lotion his dad rubs on after bath-time.

“You can get him excited about anything if you make up a song about it,” his dad, Jeremy, laughs. “He’s adorable,” says Jadie, his mom. “And he knows how cute he is, too.”

Shemar came to Jeremy and Jadie three years ago – not long after their boys started asking when they’d get a baby, since their preschool friends were getting siblings. At 2 years old, Shemar was not the baby Davis and Kannon expected – but he was old enough to wrestle, and that was a plus.

Besides tumbling with his brothers, Shemar loves family dance parties and jumping on the trampoline. His adoption was finalized earlier this year, so he has a big extended family with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and – because there’s always room for love – his birth mother and younger sister.

Facing the Unknown

Your first child is born, and you discover that your heart can love in a new gear; one you’d never imagined. Your world shifts to this tiny person and her every first move.

It’s bliss. And it’s frightening.

Margo and Ken were as prepared as any new parents could be when Adelind arrived seven years ago. They are planners and doers, and they knew what to expect – until none of it went as expected.

Adelind had unexplained illnesses as a baby, including pneumonia. Her body was floppy even by infant standards; at 6 months she started to miss milestones for normal development. Delays were diagnosed by her doctor, but nothing explained why – or if and when she would catch up.

Her first-time parents were overwhelmed by the unknowns. But fortunately for Adelind, her mother is “persistent as all get-out.” Margo placed Adelind at our Jordan Center when she was 1½ years old and pushed on for an answer to her child’s global developmental delays.

The answer was not something we could provide as early childhood educators. We didn’t know why Adelind couldn’t speak or make sounds, or why she struggled to control her movements. But we could provide this – a team that loved and encouraged Adelind and her parents. We became family and helped tackle their issues together, making Adelind’s classroom a welcoming home away from home and sharing strategies for parenting and therapies.

It took two rounds of genetic testing before Margo and Ken got their answer: Adelind was born with a mild case of Kleefstra Syndrome, a condition so underdiagnosed at the time that only 500 cases worldwide had been confirmed.

Today, Adelind talks a blue streak, and she has no self-consciousness about expressing herself in her own way. She makes up stories and acts them out on the spot. She reads above grade level and, to the delight of her “word nerd” mother, spells like a champ.

“We set out from the beginning – obviously every parent does – to have a child that is healthy, happy, and lives independently,” Margo says. “We’re still aiming for those three things, to help her be the very best she can be, and the foundation that was built for her at the Jordan Center is just amazing.”