1 Little, 2 Little, 3 Little……..#7 Adoption
Alana, a working mother, has a full quiver of 6 children ranging from 14 to three years old. Her brood has lived in hotels, crashed on the floors and beds of generous friends, and slept many places the last two years.
You see, Alana has has a string of unhealthy, short relationships, resulting in six children from five fathers (her 12 and 3 year old are from the same father from two attempts at a relationship). She relocated her and her five children to begin again with the father of her 1year old; but, that resulted in four years of physical abuse, a pregnancy, and relocating back to her original home town.
Alana began working again, had a one-night fling with a long-time friend. Although she was on birth control and additional protection, the one-night fling brought forth baby number seven.
With so much instability in the life of her and her children Alana couldn’t see bringing one more child into the mix. This was a heart wrenching decision she wrestled with for months. But, after a conversation with her younger sister who recently placed her child for adoption, Alana was convinced it was the right thing to do. She and her sister decided to ask the adoptive family if they would adopt Alana’s child and raise him as their own in the home his cousin would grow up in. They resolutely said, “YES!” within a week.
Each of her children reacted differently. The three year old recognizes pictures of her younger brother, the five year old son wondered at first where his little brother was but now understands he “isn’t coming home”, the middle two children were warm and kind to their mom and youngest brother, and the eldest child (14) was angry for a while and chose to stay with a family friend.
Alana continued to share her adoption journey on social media; she posted everything from doctor’s appointments to how she was feeling to first pictures.