Daniel's Story
September 24, 2013 is the day we met our son Daniel. It was the start of an unexpected and wonderful journey
with Daniel. He was part of our family
we didn’t realize was missing. It is finally time to make this official!
Adoption is never a clear process, but
our story is especially unique and we’d like to share it with you.
I (Kaylie) have
always had a strong passion for kids. I went to school to be a child life
specialist. Yet I knew that someday my
most important job would be being a mom. I was young when I became a mom
and wanted to stay home with my kids.
However, I also wanted to fulfill
my desire to help children in need. When I learned about
Safe Families, a short term foster care program for moms who are in need I was so excited to become involved. Tim has supported our experiences with Safe
Families every step of the way. There is no way I could do this without
him! He is blessed with a patient personality that allows him to care for and
love all children. I thank God He gave me a husband who is one of the best dads
in the world!
We met Daniel through this Safe Families program. Daniel, his
mother, Jessica, and 2 brothers were homeless. We volunteered to care for
Daniel in hopes that Jessica could completely focus on finding a job and a
home. I’ll never forget that day we met him! He was so cute, I was instantly in
love! He fell asleep on our way home and continued to sleep when we got home
for about 7 hours. The longest 7 hours of my life! I couldn’t stop going
into the room to peek at him. I just wanted to love him and hold him and
get to know him. What a great 6 months those were, getting to know Daniel. We
had him for the maximum amount of time in the program. When time was up, we had
to return him to Jessica, who unfortunately had not been able to find a home
for her and the boys.
This time was very hard for us. We had fallen in love with
Daniel, and then had to return him to an unstable environment. At this point,
we invited Jessica and the 3 boys to move in with us. It was a full house! But we felt called to help this family. We
helped Jessica get a job, and found them a home. We helped support them, but
could see that things were falling apart once they moved out. Jessica became
pregnant and unfortunately, again, they were homeless.
This is when we realized that the plan we assumed for Daniel’s
life (living with his birth mom), might not be God’s plan for Daniel’s life.
Maybe we were called to care for him for longer than just those 6 months.
We decided to ask Jessica if we could get guardianship of Daniel and take
him into our home. This is the part in our story when we want to recognize what
a strong selfless woman Jessica is.
Jessica had the option to say, “No”. Jessica had the option
to say that she wanted to keep Daniel. But instead, she recognized in
this time, that Daniel had the opportunity to have a better life. He had
the opportunity to have a home with a
mom, a dad and stability. Letting your child go must be one of the
hardest things in the world. With
selfless strength, Jessica overcame that desire to keep him and let us
become his guardians. One of the things that Daniel gets from his birth mom
is his ability to love. They both love deeply. Jessica loved Daniel so
much that she was willing to let him go. I thank God every day that she trusts
us and has given us the privilege of raising her son.
When we obtained guardianship, Daniel’s place in our hearts
changed. Our goal had always been to return Daniel to Jessica. But
we now had the goal of raising Daniel to be a loved and well adjusted part of our family. Throughout this
time, we had to put our hearts on the line and accept that Daniel could
ultimately go back to Jessica. We loved him with all the love a parent has for a child. We remember talking to both of our sets of parents and
saying, you now have another grandchild!
It wasn’t always easy in these first few months. It was
confusing for Daniel. How do you explain to a child who has been going
back and forth for over a year what his future holds? Especially when you aren’t
even sure what the future holds. We just had to trust that God’s will for
Daniel’s life would be shown. Well, it’s safe to say God’s will has been
shown. We are very confident that we are ready to take the next step in our
journey with Daniel-Adoption!!
It has been a little over 2 years that we have had guardianship of
Daniel. During this time, Daniel has grown into a smiley goofy
sweetheart. He loves his brothers and his little sister. He
is always making us laugh and joking around. He loves to dance and sing,
pretend to be a ninja, and do crafts. He is one of the smartest kids in his class. He writes
little notes to us almost daily about how much he loves us. He is the
most empathetic child I have
ever met. If he sees someone hurting, he hurts with them. If he
sees someone is happy, he is beaming. We always say, he is a lover, and
you know that the instant you meet Daniel. He could cuddle for days! For
not such an easy start to his life, this child has overcome any insecurity and
is thriving!
Our family has grown by more than just a son. Daniel’s birth family and our family have come
together. We are a team united by
our love for Daniel. There is no
competition, only infinite love for Daniel, joy upon spending time with him,
and support to help Daniel grow into the most amazing person he can be. All of our kids have “Mama J”. They have
gained aunts, a Granny, brothers and cousins. My heart is so happy
as I’m typing this. What a blessing to have everyone who loves Daniel stick
together because that’s what he needs and
deserves!
Daniel’s oldest biological brother,
Markese, is going to be adopted by Stacey and Shamika Willis. We make sure the boys remain a part of each other’s lives with
playdates and sleepovers! I thank God for the Willis’! Daniel’s younger biological brothers, Jeremiah and Jarrod, are living with a family Jessica met through Safe Families in
Colorado, Adam & Katie Robinson.We
facetime Jeremiah and Jarrod every now and then. I also thank God for the Robinsons!
We have wanted to adopt Daniel and have him be a Nieboer for over two years, when we asked for legal
guardianship of Daniel. We
never wanted to rush Jessica into a decision that she would someday regret.
Well, friends, we have great news! Jessica has agreed to move forward with
letting us adopt Daniel! She is 100% sure she is ready for this and we are
thrilled!!
We couldn’t have done this without the help of all of you. It
truly takes a village and we want to thank every one of you from the bottom of
our hearts. From encouraging letters to meals to donating clothes to ultimately
loving our son, Daniel, thank you. It means the world to us to feel so
supported and secure in this decision to adopt Daniel.
God
Bless!
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