Parents Open Up About Their Experience Adopting Teenagers | Today

I wish people understood that all kids were that like they could they have a good inside just a bad part [Music] she's the pick me up from school of drunks he's a segment of school like I started to miss my mom when she was in drove that's how much she Jerry so our dad was out of the picture film on taxis and Joe a lot the very last time I saw him was when I was seven and he was behind bars and prison [Music] my mom came inside and she was like you guys have to go with them like I started just blessing out crying because you had to pack all my clothes in the bag and everything the freshmen open you really cried within the second night I was in tears I don't really know what was going on until like I realized that I wasn't it's my mom for a long time [Music] I've always wanted to adopt my sister was adopted and I remember having a conversation with my mom that conversation included well older kids don't really get adopted as much and so that for me planted a seed very early in my life and it has always just kind of resonated in the back of my mind that that's just not fair [Music] and Glen had moved out maybe it'd been six months or so not a very long time and I was and I had brought up the idea to Josie this time around for Lauren and Nelson I said you know it just doesn't feel right it feels kind of empty it feel like we're supposed to have you know more kids I guess is the best way to put it adoption specialist called and said we have two kids that are in need of a relatively quick placements for adoption and you know what do you think and we were like we're ready like we can do this and they're like okay they're moving in on Friday the first time we ever met them they had their bags with them knock on our door and they know that we want to adopt them and even met them and then next thing you know we're in their home it's really scary it was really hard so no they were nervous like you get caught exhale they were little but they handled it so but they did they were so and we're only their second placement third placement the first month that they were with us both of them especially Lauren we just talked about everything you could tell that every time she would tell the story like she would become a lighter like you would just see her peel away all these layers of like I need to talk about this I want to share this with somebody and it was so oh it's just awesome seeing both of them just like turned to themselves over that short period of time [Music] it seems a lot I used to be super disrespect super disrespectful well I got a show but a lot here but it's like everything makes sense now I just guess I'd have a reason to be angry I guess I was just sad we really kind of changed our parenting style to be more of you know what I'm not gonna focus so much on what I can give you we're just gonna do this thing like we're just gonna live together and we're gonna appreciate each other and we're gonna respect each other and we're gonna talk about everything and we're gonna figure it out and that has been kind of pivotal for our success as a family yes period it's about love and support and so you're not gonna like everything your child does that's life whether they're adopted or biological but one thing I've learned from my children and for my wife is it's about being loving and just be there for them [Music] I tell my friends like powders they feel bad for me like they said do you miss your mom like they talked to me back but they're happy that I'm gonna stay home I used to cry did I miss my mom like when we got Duff - it just felt like we move into a home at first it was like weird and now it's like kids did after I got somebody like a family it's nice to be able to to be there for these guys and and because I've been through it things too and so I feel very fortunate and blessed I feel like they give me way more than I can ever give them when it came down to the idea of adopting a teenager potentially we thought that the things that teenagers could bring to us would be challenging or could be challenging but that we were up for that challenge and that has turned out to be tremendously awesome for our family and I think a lot of people are scared of adopting older kids for fear that that flan can't happen yeah I think it's different than with a baby but like it's so gratifying like when you get to that point where you're like this is but that does come to something important because you do bond we adopted these children because we just felt like it was the right thing to do they had a need and we could fill that need and so that's why we did it so they're just our children to us and we just happen to get them later in life it's how we look at it you [Music]

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Views: 1,733,492

Rating: 4.9804707 out of 5

Keywords: Lifestyle, Today Originals, Big News, Parents, Parenting, Today, Today Show, NBC, Adoption, Advice, Adopting, Adopting Teenagers, teenage adoption, family, adoption story, adoption journey

Id: gN--er0kyeo

Length: 6min 30sec (390 seconds)

Published: Tue May 28 2019