We have been asking this question since attending the adoption information meeting put on by the State of Texas’ Child Protective Services (CPS).

We have friends who adopted 5 girls, all sisters, through CPS some years ago, and I believe they ranged in age from 1 or 2 years old to maybe 10 years old; we hope to meet with them sometime soon to learn about their experience adopting their 5 daughters.

Another friend of ours who is well-versed in Montessori wisdom said that she thought that “old” is 4 years old!  That took us aback, since we had been thinking that maybe 12 years old is “old”.

I guess our concern, as you can imagine, is that the older the child is, the more harm has been done to them and therefore their wounds are deeper, their personality, including faults and learned bad behavior, is more ingrained and therefore harder to change for the better.

Yet another friend, however, encouraged me that these children need love, and if they are ever to have a good chance at becoming the persons God created them to be, they are much better off being adopted and loved rather than bounced around from one foster family to another until they finally turn 18 and are on their own, without a family to come home to.

Katie and I are very grateful to all our friends and family who have given us advice or shared their experiences with us about adoption; we are actively discerning whether our Lord desires us to adopt or not, and if so, what age of children, and the wisdom of our loved ones is an important factor in this discernment.

Meanwhile, we did a search recently on the CPS site and found this sibling group had been newly added:

“and its someplace simple where we could live
and something only you can give
and that’s faith and trust and peace while we’re alive

and the one poor child who saved this world
and there’s 10 million more who probably could
if we all just stopped and said a prayer for them

so take these words
and sing out loud
cause everyone is forgiven now
cause tonight’s the night the world begins again”

– The Goo Goo Dolls, “Better Days”

Share:
  • Facebook