A story of Love: Poseidon and Athena's Adoption Story

[Katerbug564]

This is the adoption story for my neice and nephew Poseidon and Athena.

My sister in law, Lindsey, was a wonderful beautiful person.  She was so artistic and so loving.  Probably one of the most amazing people I had ever met.  But like alot of people like her Lindsey had a very dark side.  She had a very serious and strong addiction to drugs and alcohol.  I know from my training as a drug and alcohol counselor, as well as personal experiences that I have had that addiction eats away at a person's soal until there isn't much left of them to work with.  Unfortunately, this is what was happening to Lindsey.  She, along with my husband, and brother in law had grown up in a house where addiction ran rampid.  Their father is a raging alcoholic, and there mother claims to drink socially but has a very serious addiction as well.  My brother in law is also addicted to several different drugs and alcohol.

Around 5 months into my pregnancy with Maddy and Mackenna my husband recieved a phone call from his sister.  My husband out of the house for the evening so our room-mate took the phone call.  When we heard that she had called I told my husband "I bet she's pregnant."  He laughed it off and called her back.  I was right she was pregnant, and she didn't know what to do.  She had previously had abortions I know that, but she told my husband that this time she just couldn't do it.  She wanted to keep the baby and told us that she needed rehab.  I called a friend of mine who lives in her town and told them what was going on. They got her into a program.  9 months later Poseidon was born.  I know it was hard for her she was a single parent with not a very good job.  Unfortunately during this time we didn't talk much to Lindsey.  We were all busy with our own lives I guess; When she came back for Christmas she told all of us that she had desided that if something happened to her that my husband's younger brother was to raise her child.  This didn't suprise us, they had always been close, and we weren't worried about it that much.  As far as we knew Lindsey was clean and in no more danger then anyone else of dying. in 2008,she was once again pregnant, once again she said she was clean, and wanted to keep the baby.  My husband and I were trying for another baby, so we went on with our own lives.  Not long after Athena's birth and around the 4th month of my pregancy with Maleah and Logan, we recieved a phone call this time is was from my husbands parents.  They said that Lindsey was in a hospital in there city and needed us.  We jumped on a plane and were there with in a few hours.  With in a few moments of walking in I could tell that Lindsey had over dosed and was very sick. When I got my husband alone I told him that given all of the overdosed I had seen in my line of work the chances that she was going to come out of this competely unscaved were not very high.  He told me tearfully "I know"  Then he looked at me in a way I have only seen him do one time in our marriage and said "what are we going to do about Poseidon and Athena?"  I was shocked, was he saying what I thought he was saying?  "Your brother is suppost to raise them." I said.  He looked at me very seriously and said "You know he can't do that; He is as sick as she is."

Even though I knew he was right the idea of 2 more children on top of the 5 we already had, as well as our room mates 2 kids was mind boggling to me.  That was 9 kids in one house.  How in the world could we ever make that work? Where would we put them all? How would we put 7 kids through college?  How would we pay for all of the activites that 7 kids wanted to do? I never questioned how we would love 7 children; or how we would raise them my question simply was how would we AFFORD 7 children?  But that whole statement about God providing is true.  He does.

That very night in the hospital we went to My husband's little brother and asked him if he truly was ready to take on 2 children, he said he absolutely unequivicly no, he was not.  The relief in his voice when we told him that we were willing to take on the 2 children was amazing.  My husband's parents also agreed that the best option for the kids was to come to live with me and my husband.  Lindsey died that night.  It was a very sad day for the family and espically her two children.

A few weeks later we went to a judge and told him that we wanted adopt Poseidon and Athena.  Since there was no one challenging or disputing custody, and since Linsey had never made her wish for my husband's younger brother to have the children known, the adoption process was reatively easy. My greatest hope now is that Lindsey would be happy with the plan we have made for Poseidon and Athena's Lives.  I love these children with all of my heart, I couldn't love them more if I had given birth to them.  I can honestly say I feel as though I grew my 5 in my belly for 10 months but these 2 I carried in my heart!

In Memory of Lindsey

05/25/09

[AmericanChild82]

Nov. 29, 2009 at 6:24 PM

That is an amazing story it brought tears to my eyes. Lindsay is very lucky to have family like you. Her kids are going to grow up knowing just knowing how much their mother loved them.