Hi guys! While I was cleaning up my saved paperwork on my computer I came across the family profile from my adoptuskids.org account. This was from back when I was applying to be matched with kiddos! I ended up being matched with Juls and he's PERFECT so that worked out :) A lot of social workers responded well to my profile, so I wanted to share it in case other foster parents are thinking about adopting a waiting child from that site and wanted to see an example of a profile. This profile was written when I was legally a single mom as Ariel and I didn't live together back then. See below!
My name is Lauren Flynn, and I’m a special education teacher living in Columbus, Ohio’s capital city! I enjoy living in a diverse community like Columbus, and just bought a 3-bedroom house in a neighborhood that I love. My childcare provider and close friend, Sam, recently moved into one of my two extra bedrooms so that he can save on rent, as well as be able to help once my future child finally comes home. I can’t wait to share the resources of this city with my future child! I am hoping to adopt a little boy under the age of 8 who has special needs, and am open to a wide range of special needs. Due to my work in the disability community, I have experience with all kinds of needs including but not limited to: visual impairment, intellectual disabilities, orthopedic impairments, and genetic disorders. My lifelong dream has always been to raise a child with special needs and use the skills I’ve learned to connect them to the best resources, schools and experiences possible. My two former foster sons, who I raised for two years, have multiple special needs. I loved the experience of helping them learn and grow, and can’t wait to have that experience again, this time with my forever son! I’ve wanted to be a single mom by choice for my entire life, and have been planning to make that dream a reality for a long time now. I’m lucky to have the support of my entire close knit extended family, as well as several wonderful friends whom I’ve known for many years. My personal community of loved ones was amazingly supportive during my time raising my foster sons, and they cannot wait to show that same support when I am finally able to adopt.
My teaching career is a major source of joy for me, and I’m also lucky in that it offers a flexible schedule with plenty of time for friends and family. When I’m not at work, I enjoy reading, cooking, going for walks in my community, and spending time with the children I babysit or mentor, including my former foster sons. My friends and I enjoy exploring new restaurants in Columbus as well. Many of my friends have children, and we like to explore the kid friendly activities Columbus has to offer together. I am excited to introduce my future son to my friends and their kids, and take him for adventures to places like the science center, my city’s many play cafes, and our amazing zoo! My extended family and I also love to travel, especially in the summer when I am off of work. We enjoy going to family camps, the ocean, and other family friendly destinations together, and are all excited to share these experiences with another little one.
I have an extensive background working with children. I worked as a childcare provider for over 5 years prior to obtaining my degree and beginning my teaching career, and I now teach special education to high schoolers with moderate to severe disabilities. I have also volunteered with multiple disability advocacy groups in my area. However, my biggest learning experience was when I had the honor of raising two foster sons with special needs. Those two brothers lived with me for a little over two years, and they taught me how to be a mom. I grew so much through that experience, and loved every moment of being their parent. Parenting them further solidified my decision to pursue motherhood through adoption.
When it comes to support, I am one of the luckiest single parents around! During the two years that I was raising my foster sons, I was able to iron out all of the kinks of single parenthood. My main childcare provider is one of my best friends, Sam, who has a background in social work. He was an excellent “manny” to my former foster sons, and was able to deal with high needs like mental health issues, and physical needs like specialized diets and mobility issues, without batting an eye. He is incredibly dependable and having him as a live-in childcare provider is going to be a huge source of support going forward. My other best friend, Megan, is a children’s therapist with Nationwide Children’s hospital specializing in autism. She is a great resource because she has so much experience with special needs kiddos, and she loves children and has always been happy to take mine for an outing when I needed a break. My mom, stepfather, and sister all live in Ohio as well. They regularly watched my former foster sons for me, and my mom was always eager to help out with more urgent childcare needs. For example, when one of my foster sons had to have surgery my mom was able to come stay with my other foster son so that I could be at the hospital when my child needed me. She excelled at her role of foster grandmother, and is so excited to be a “forever grammy”!
My community is one of the best places to raise a child with special needs. Within 5 miles from my home is one of the leading children’s hospitals in the country. We also live right by a speech therapy center, and the city is just full of incredible, inclusive activities and programs for children of all abilities. I work at a nearby high school and can personal attest that the local school district provides excellent opportunities for all of its special education students. I also have the advantage of working in that field, and will be able to advocate for my child in a way that less experienced parents might not be able to. We also live very close to the Ohio State school for the blind, the Nisonger Center for Developmental Disabilities, and the Ohio State University! There truly could not be more resources available to kids with special needs, and I have taken so much joy in watching other kids I’ve worked with benefit from being connected with those resources. Furthermore, Columbus is a diverse community; children of minority races would feel especially at home here as our minority communities are very strong and active. I personally have a diverse circle of friends around me, and feel that I can offer a child of another race plenty of positive racial mirrors and exposure to their culture of origin, as well as exposure to cultures from all over the world!
I hope you will consider me to adopt one of the sweet little boys waiting in foster care. I can promise you that if chosen to be his mom, I will put everything I have into giving him an absolutely beautiful life. I have waited for so long to meet my forever son, and have so much love to give. I know single parents are probably not everyone’s first choice, but I can promise you that any child of mine will know love, security, and joy. Most of all, they will be cherished beyond measure for their unique little self, no matter what extra challenges they may have. Thanks for your consideration!
If you read through that whole thing, congrats to you :) This profile brought me to the cutie you see below, so I think it was pretty good!
