Success Stories

The Hermansen Family

Published Date

We have always known from the beginning of our marriage that adoption would play a special role in us adding to and completing our family.

With many failed adoptions, including three international processes, we found ourselves at a point where our last adoption had stolen a great amount of money and had lied to us about the children we were pursuing. Despite our painful losses we knew we still had children out there and that we needed to find them. We turned our hearts toward the foster care system and spent many hours on each states heart galleries. On Sept 21, 2010 we saw our son’s photo on the Arkansas heart gallery and we immediately felt as though he was our son and that we were to proceed forward. I wrote my first email inquiry about our son Drey (14yr) that day and talked with his social worker a week later. Within a couple of weeks our son had chosen us as his family and within 5 months he had finally joined our family. It’s been a wonderful joy adding a teenager to our family. There are always hesitations of adding a teenager, not knowing what they have gone through and what life experiences they may be bringing to your family. This was a fear of my husband as well, but the experience has been amazing. Our son came from a situation where he was struggling severely in school, was bullied and didn't have any confidence in himself. He was deathly scared of going to school, being around anyone other than us or the thought of participating in any event that involved more people than his immediate family. Over the last year and half that he has been here, and with the support of great teachers and a great community, he is making great strides in school, has become involved in school athletics and is more than comfortable in our community and around his peers. Most people think that adopting an older child means missing out on important milestones of their lives. I see it differently. You still get to hear their first, “I love you”, you receive their first hug, take them to their first day at a new school, watch them play their first sport, help them for the first time on homework, and send them on their first date. You still get the 'first times', you just get them later in life with your older children, however, it’s just as rewarding when it comes and in many instances a different level of reward knowing the things they have went through to get to that point. Since our adoption with Drey was such a wonderful experience, we have decided to do it again. We are so happy to be in the process of adopting our 14 year old daughter from the Arkansas Foster care system as well. Adoption is a wonderful way to add to your family. It’s not always easy and takes lots of work, but it is worth every bit of the work involved because these are our kids and I love them. I’m so grateful for the children that have joined our family through adoption. We are a forever family!