Jason and Teena's Adoption
Donation protected
This gofund me is set up for Jason and Teena Newman. They are in the process of adopting 3 children. Originally, our plan was to throw a "baby" shower since they are becoming first time parents, but we are running out of time. Below is a letter they wrote.
____________________________________
Teena and I have been married for 8 years. We don’t have any children and really never had a vision that we would be parents. Adoption was something we had discussed in casual conversations – we knew we had the ability to love any child as our own even if he/she was not our biological child.
In 2017 there was a heaviness put on my heart to adopt. I blew it off like most things the Lord shows or tells me. But one Sunday during the announcements at Church there was a foster child adoption event that caught my attention. I still didn’t mention anything to Teena, but I prayed about it. After the same announcement the next week, Teena asked if we should attend. So I opened up to Teena about what I felt the Lord was leading us to do. And this was the beginning of our adoption journey.
It took about a year before we were approved to adopt. The year consisted of an orientation, paper work, background checks, adoption training classes, more paper work, home studies, and more paper work – we were finally approved. We probably could have completed all this quicker, but honestly after everything we had heard about adopting children that had been through trauma, we were a little nervous. So we were not in any rush.
We went down the path of something called “matched adoption” from the Foster Care system. These children were permanently removed from their parents and were looking for a permanent home. During the Home Study process, we select what type of child would best fit our home and parenting capabilities. We selected one child - MAYBE two (if the stars aligned perfectly) between the ages of 3 to 7. “As long as they are out of diapers, but the younger the easier to influence,” we said.
Throughout the process, we became aware that older children and sibling groups struggle finding adoptive homes. A large number of these children “age out” of the system without a place to call home. Not quite sure of the statistic, but most of the children that age out have a very tough life ahead of them.
Although we were still focused on our 3-7 desired age range, we started going to events where older children and sibling groups adoption was the highlight. After meeting and hearing about some of these children, our hearts were moved in a different direction. We started asking our agency to submit our home study to children that didn’t meet our desired criteria.
During one of these events, we came across a sibling group that caught our attention. It was siblings of three – boy (7), girl (9) and girl (10). They were not actually at the event, so we didn’t meet them. But we were able to speak with their CPS and CASA representatives. Our agency submitted our home study and Teena built a relationship with the CPS representative. We prayed, our family and friends prayed, and after Christmas of 2018, we got the news that we were selected to be the new adoptive parents of three children. Yes, I did say “THREE”! For those of you with three or more than three children, remember Teena and I have don’t have any kids and zero parenting experience.
It took us a year to get approved for adoption and only less than two months to find our match. We thought it would take much longer and we now had to put it in overdrive to get ready for our children of THREE. Might I remind you that we were only expecting one, MAYBE two, but definitely NOT THREE!
Teena and I had a lot of work to do before our new children would be placed with us. We had to remodel and furnish bedrooms, a bathroom, and get a “family” room ready before placement of what we thought would be Spring Break. We wanted to make their new home a place they felt safe and secure.
We found out that a Spring Break placement wasn’t possible because of some administrative work required from the State. But we were able to meet and spend the entire Spring Break with our kids. What an adventure! We have a challenging road ahead of us, but these kids are precious!
The children are in a tough spot right now, bouncing between Teena and me on the weekends and their foster parents home during the week. So please pray for their little hearts and minds as they wait for yet another life changing event.
Teena and I have been scrambling around between getting the home ready, reading as much as we can on parenting children with a trauma background, buying new clothes/shoes, preparing for their therapists and doctors, and the FOOD! Seriously! I thought I ate a lot. Our first visit to Costco was shocking. Anyway, with everything going on, we didn’t plan or budget for summer. Teena and I both have full time jobs and aside from going on our first vacation, we need a place for the kids to spend the day. We would like to send the kids to a summer day camp.
We’ve had family and friends offer to throw us a shower. But everything was happening so quickly, we just had to purchase items as the need arrived versus creating a registry. So in lieu of a shower, we thought if anyone would like to help out, we could really use donations that would go towards their summer camp this year.
Even if you don’t donate, the most important thing you can do is to pray for these children and us. These kiddo’s have had a tough life, and we would really like for the Lord to heal their hearts and minds.
Sincerely,
Teena & Jason Newman
____________________________________
Teena and I have been married for 8 years. We don’t have any children and really never had a vision that we would be parents. Adoption was something we had discussed in casual conversations – we knew we had the ability to love any child as our own even if he/she was not our biological child.
In 2017 there was a heaviness put on my heart to adopt. I blew it off like most things the Lord shows or tells me. But one Sunday during the announcements at Church there was a foster child adoption event that caught my attention. I still didn’t mention anything to Teena, but I prayed about it. After the same announcement the next week, Teena asked if we should attend. So I opened up to Teena about what I felt the Lord was leading us to do. And this was the beginning of our adoption journey.
It took about a year before we were approved to adopt. The year consisted of an orientation, paper work, background checks, adoption training classes, more paper work, home studies, and more paper work – we were finally approved. We probably could have completed all this quicker, but honestly after everything we had heard about adopting children that had been through trauma, we were a little nervous. So we were not in any rush.
We went down the path of something called “matched adoption” from the Foster Care system. These children were permanently removed from their parents and were looking for a permanent home. During the Home Study process, we select what type of child would best fit our home and parenting capabilities. We selected one child - MAYBE two (if the stars aligned perfectly) between the ages of 3 to 7. “As long as they are out of diapers, but the younger the easier to influence,” we said.
Throughout the process, we became aware that older children and sibling groups struggle finding adoptive homes. A large number of these children “age out” of the system without a place to call home. Not quite sure of the statistic, but most of the children that age out have a very tough life ahead of them.
Although we were still focused on our 3-7 desired age range, we started going to events where older children and sibling groups adoption was the highlight. After meeting and hearing about some of these children, our hearts were moved in a different direction. We started asking our agency to submit our home study to children that didn’t meet our desired criteria.
During one of these events, we came across a sibling group that caught our attention. It was siblings of three – boy (7), girl (9) and girl (10). They were not actually at the event, so we didn’t meet them. But we were able to speak with their CPS and CASA representatives. Our agency submitted our home study and Teena built a relationship with the CPS representative. We prayed, our family and friends prayed, and after Christmas of 2018, we got the news that we were selected to be the new adoptive parents of three children. Yes, I did say “THREE”! For those of you with three or more than three children, remember Teena and I have don’t have any kids and zero parenting experience.
It took us a year to get approved for adoption and only less than two months to find our match. We thought it would take much longer and we now had to put it in overdrive to get ready for our children of THREE. Might I remind you that we were only expecting one, MAYBE two, but definitely NOT THREE!
Teena and I had a lot of work to do before our new children would be placed with us. We had to remodel and furnish bedrooms, a bathroom, and get a “family” room ready before placement of what we thought would be Spring Break. We wanted to make their new home a place they felt safe and secure.
We found out that a Spring Break placement wasn’t possible because of some administrative work required from the State. But we were able to meet and spend the entire Spring Break with our kids. What an adventure! We have a challenging road ahead of us, but these kids are precious!
The children are in a tough spot right now, bouncing between Teena and me on the weekends and their foster parents home during the week. So please pray for their little hearts and minds as they wait for yet another life changing event.
Teena and I have been scrambling around between getting the home ready, reading as much as we can on parenting children with a trauma background, buying new clothes/shoes, preparing for their therapists and doctors, and the FOOD! Seriously! I thought I ate a lot. Our first visit to Costco was shocking. Anyway, with everything going on, we didn’t plan or budget for summer. Teena and I both have full time jobs and aside from going on our first vacation, we need a place for the kids to spend the day. We would like to send the kids to a summer day camp.
We’ve had family and friends offer to throw us a shower. But everything was happening so quickly, we just had to purchase items as the need arrived versus creating a registry. So in lieu of a shower, we thought if anyone would like to help out, we could really use donations that would go towards their summer camp this year.
Even if you don’t donate, the most important thing you can do is to pray for these children and us. These kiddo’s have had a tough life, and we would really like for the Lord to heal their hearts and minds.
Sincerely,
Teena & Jason Newman
Organizer
Kim Wallar
Organizer
Rowlett, TX