The Dody Family's Adoption Story

we have often said if our life would have played out the way we thought and we would have gotten pregnant and had the two children that we thought we wanted we would never have these kids in our life I can't imagine not being reys Max Grace and Natalie's mom I was always meant to be their mom and we were always metant to have our story come together the way it did regardless of the up and downs and the grief and the pain and the unknown and all of the roller coaster that comes with becoming a [Music] family look Daddy's here go get him go get him I'm Amy Dodie uh this is my husband Dustin we have been foster parents for the last 6 years and we have since moved on and adopted our four Reese is six in kindergarten Max is five in preschool Grace is three and Natalie's two three from Foster Care um then are bio siblings and then Max was a private adoption we started trying to grow our family in 2013 and we were not getting pregnant and um it was very emotional it was very painful it was a long 3 years of infertility and very much um no light at the end of our [Music] tunnel it was a Saturday and out of the blue I just turned to him and said what do you think about us fostering he said I don't think so the same week he calls me and out of nowhere says you know what do we need to do to get this Foster stuff started and I'm like where did that come from he said I just heard a commercial on the radio talking about fostering and I knew that we needed to do it we knew 100% that we were called to Foster I think I called the Children's Division and said I how do we get started I have no idea and they directed us to um start filling out paperwork and they sent us everything and we started training and so that's how it all started I'm flying a [Music] ship when we adopted Max we actually adopted him on National adoption day in 2018 which was awesome it was such a very exciting memorable day for our family so we call it Dodie day and it is the day that we became a family and we acknowledge it and we talk about it and tell him that's you know what it is and then we also do that with the girls that is their they have their Dodie day as well and that is the day they became part of our family you know you know you go through life sometimes and you don't know kind of what your purpose is or what it is um when we got called into this it was like this is it like I feel like this is what we're supposed to do this is like our purpose you know we've got people that were born to be doctors and strive to do that people that are born you know for different things and that's where it's like I this is why I'm here we are not superhuman we our hearts aren't bigger than other people's we wanted to be there for these kids and they they didn't ask for this they didn't ask to be born into these families to experience the things that they did and if it wasn't going to be us who was it going to be we had a home to provide we had love we had support we had everything and we were willing and I think that people just get stuck on the fact that oh we could never do it it's too hard it is too hard it really is too hard but but the kids are they're worth it and I mean I can't imagine and I don't even want to think about where my girls would be if we hadn't said yes to them these kids are incredible they are incredible they don't even know how much their story can impact others through all the chaos and the turmoil and the ups and the Downs it's never felt wrong it's always felt this is what I'm supposed to do this is what I meant to do even if it hurts these kids need us and if we don't do it who's going to [Music]

Channel: FosterAdopt Connect

Views: 21,243

Keywords: foster, kinship, adoption, missouri, kansas, fosteradopt connect, adopt, connect

Id: vsjsrG8Sc9A

Length: 4min 36sec (276 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 19 2023