Susan Marie

After Myranda had been with us for a little more than a year we decided to add to our family. I called our adoption social worker and told her we were ready for another placement. (I had already told the foster agency but that day I felt like I should call our county worker.) She said that she had a girl named Susan that she needed to move that week. Once again with limited information we agreed to foster Susie. We picked Susie up in August 2002 at a McDonald's in Hesperia. She was there having a sibling visit with 4 of her siblings. Susie was 6 at the time. Her transition to our family was a little harder than Myranda's. She had been in a few different foster homes so it took a while for her to feel secure with us. But we knew right away that we wanted to adopt Susie also. Since Myranda's adoption was not final yet, Susie was added to our file. Susie's birth parent's parental rights had already been terminated, so we did not have to wait for that to happen. She had been in a family prior that was planning to adopt her, but she had to be removed. When Susie first arrived I was a little worried about her education. She was in first grade and the year had already started when she came. Her teacher said that on her first day Susie just leaned back in her chair and put her feet up on her desk. She was not able to read yet and was not at all serious about school. Boy has that changed. She is very intelligent. We still had to wait a while for the adoptions to be final. When it looked like things were getting close our case was assingend to a new social worker. This social worker was an intern and did not know what she was doing. It took many phone calls and calls to supervisors to try to get things moving. The social worker are supposed to visit the children in their home once a month. Well one time this intern social worker made an appointment to visit at 3:30. She did not show, so we went on with our normal evening activties. We had dinner and the girls took a shower. Then after 7:00 the doorbell rang and there was the social worker. She said nothing about being late. The county was often very frustrating to work with. Finally everything was in order for us to go to court and finalize the adoption. The adoption was final on June 12, 2003. The girls were given blessings and Myranda was baptized. Then we were sealed together as a forever family in the Los Angeles Temple on June 28, 2003.

Susie is now 12 years old and is in 6th grade. Susie is very intelligent. She is part of the GATE program at her middle school. She takes her time to do her school work because she wants it to be right. Sometimes this is not such a good thing because she often does homework until bedtime. She gets good grades and always scores high on any testing. She has a very curious mind and has many interesting questions and ideas. Susie is my number one helper with the little boys. I don't think I could do it without her. She is very nurturing and loving with them. She will be an excellent mother someday.