And then there were two

[Goose]

[r00]

lucky kids.  I would love to have a dad as geeky as you.  Lots of cool toys.

[luna]

Goose has the same receiver as us

[Aaron]

lucky kids.  I would love to have a dad as geeky as you.  Lots of cool toys.

Hell even half as geeky would have been awesome. But ya, Congrats! Hope everything works out well!

[dee]

You got a potty trained kid for xmas? You lucky dog. Grats 

[Goose]

Ok, now that I finally have a little time, I can actually write a bit about this.  Late October, we got a call from Social Services that a boy had come up for adoption, and we had been selected.  He's 100% Native, and his mom probably did drink during pregnancy, but he's got no signs of fetal-alcohol syndrome, and if there was going to be problems in that regard they would've shown up by now.  He probably should've been apprehended at birth (his biological mom's got five other kids in foster care), but he ended up being apprehended five weeks later when circumstances required it.

He spent the next three and a half years being bounced from foster home to foster home every few months, mostly because there were no long-term homes available, so he just went from emergency home to emergency home.  He eventually found a foster home that could take him until his adoption process could start, and that was nine months ago.  It was the longest he'd ever stayed in one place, and it really helped him out.   He's got some speech development problems, he kinda talks like a kid almost a year younger than he is, but he's come leaps and bounds in the last nine months with regular speech therapy.  Given his history, that kind of problem isn't surprising, but its a solvable one.

He was living in a small town a few hours away from us, so most of November was spent with visits to him up there, getting him used to us, and us getting to know him.  Any time we weren't working, we were traversing the province to spend time with him and go through the transition process.  Then in late November the visits moved down to us instead, and eventually he just never left.

He turns 4 in January, the papers are all signed, and he's ours for good now.  We changed his middle names to ones we always wanted to give a child of our own, after my wife's great-grandfather and my own father.

Say hi to my son, Mackenzie Findlay Robert.

[luna]

that's awesome news! Congrats to you and your wifey

[videodrone]

Reading this just put a huge smile on my face. Congrats to you both!

drone

[kristin]

Congrats! What a lucky little guy! 

[individualzero]

Congrats! Glad those kiddos are in good hands with you and your wifey!

[r00]

Big congrats to you and your wife, Goose!!!  That is such good news!  He looks like a happy kid.  8)

[dee]

Hello Mackenzie! Aren't you the cutie?

Goose, he's beautiful! I'm so glad everything is finally working out for you and the missus. Congrats!

[Stariki]

Happy for you Goose and wifey! You guys rock! 

[Goose]

As happy as I am for all your congratulations, while I was back in Saskatoon for Xmas this whole thing just went to shit.  We'd been noticing some odd behaviours out of him once he really started to get comfortable in our home, but mostly shrugged them off either as by-products of his unusual upbringing to this point or just him being a fidgety 4-year-old.  Then we had a visit on Boxing Day with his former foster family, just so they could see how he's doing, and in the course of the visit things came out in a hurry.  Mackenzie has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), which explains the odd behaviours.  But we were never told this, and after some further shit went down, we found out that at least one social worker for Social Services lied and covered up this fact.  We specifically said when we signed up for adoption that we wouldn't take a child with FAS, as we are not strong enough people to be able to deal with that long-term. 

Social Services also hid the fact that he has a pediatrician, who was quick to confirm the FAS status when contacted.  Any paperwork regarding testing for FAS was buried and hidden, and we were told that FAS had been ruled out when doctors had previously examined him. 

In the end, we had to give him back to the care of Social Services.  Thankfully, the adoption process was not 100% finalized and his former foster family were able to take him back in again, so to him it'll just be a month where he stayed somewhere else for no apparent reason.  He was happy to go back.

I've got a number of interested parties quite furious about this whole situation.  Somebody better get fired over this.  Its just fucking dispicable to do this to a child and to the family adopting him.  Mackenzie's life would've been ruined had he been adopted by a family that knew they'd never be able to help him grow up, not to mention that my family would be run ragged and ripped apart from one end to the other.  I'm glad it all came to light this soon, if it had gone on any longer it could've destroyed every aspect of my family's lives.

It was a very odd feeling coming back from Xmas vacation with one fewer child than we left with, but in the end its the right thing for Mackenzie, and for everyone else involved.

[Aaron]

Jesus fucking christ dude. That's horrible they covered it up like that. But it's also a good thing it came out now instead of a few years from now... I really hope someone is fired for that much bullshit.  You and your wife have nothing but my respect for adopting children. I hope everything works out for your family in the end...