Adoption of children with mental retardation/psychotic illlnesses

[Alita61]

[ARgal]

Did you intend to write a post?

[feralkitten]

i have a child with rad if that counts

[Alita61]

Yes, we had this experience and wanted to get a discussion going for folks with difficult adoptions.

[Alita61]

We had the experience of raising two adopted children...both with mild mental retardation - one with paranoid schizophrenia and the other with bi polar with psychotic and homicidal ideations.  Just wondering if anyone else out there has had any similar experiences.

[harmony7]

 I have two with RAD, two with low IQ, a thirteen year old who is not potty trained and the list goes on...the three boys have been with us two years and it keeps getting harder instead of easier..how about for you?

[Alita61]

Yes, it was very difficult...my children are grown now.  I have three naturally born to me and two adopted.  I nearly lost my ever loving mind.  I am handicapped and in a wheelchair many days, so my son would bolt from me and so would my daughter and hide..like in the grocery store.  Lost for hours...but that was the easy part.  Hang in there, though, because now my son lives in a group home and holds down a full time job at the airport handling over sized baggage.  Unfortunately, my daughter ran away about 4 years ago.  But God is good.  You are doing a great job, I am sure.  By the way, what is RAD? 

[gracieb3]

I'm not an adoptive mom but hope to in the future.  I'm curious the age of your children when you adopted, any known trauma history, any known substance abuse by the mom and how adopted(foster case, US, foreign), private or agency?  Thank you in advance.  God bless you good souls.

[Alita61]

Yes...Joey was 2 1/2 yrs old and Theresa was 5.  There was severe and harmful neglect for Joey and the same with Theresa with sexual abuse by the parents.  These adoptions were both through Child Protective Services in the State of Texas.  We were not aware of Joey's background because it was before 1988 when there was a law suit forcing the state to give ALL info to prospective parents.  With Theresa, we knew in general  what had happened, but Joey had been so very difficult that we thought we would have no trouble raising a little 5 yr old girl.  Poor thing, she was soooo obsessed with sex from day one.  We placed her in several group homes starting at the age of 13 because she had become a danger to my life as she had "voices" telling her to stab me in the heart with a butcher knife.  Joey actually came at me with a butcher knife, but I was able to talk him out of it and took him immediatly to the hospital.  It is amazing to me what a good quality of life he now has.