Many of you viewing this site know me. For those who do not, let me introduce myself. I am Jennifer Ruppert! I was born and raised in Iowa City, Iowa (GO HAWKEYES!) and moved to Texas in July 2003 to accept a position as a Deaf Education teacher. Fast forward 14 years, and I'm still here! For the last 13 years I have taught in Conroe ISD (North Houston). For the last 12 years I have taught at Vogel Intermediate. I absolutely love teaching 5th / 6th grade.
Having just turned 36 and still single I have decided to start my own family through adoption. I feel called to adopt a Deaf child.
Why have I decided to adopt internationally? In researching kiddos who are Deaf in the US I found that many are part of a sibling group and have multiple disabilities. At this time, that would be too much for me to handle. In looking internationally, I was saddened to learn that many deaf children are placed in institutions as they get older because they have not learned sign language and are unable to communicate. Imagine a child who is smart, only lacking in communication due to a lack of resources, sitting in an institution for the rest of their life. How devastating!
I have belonged to "Rainbow Kids", an online advocacy page for years. I was under the impression adoption was a process I would not be able to afford. Early in February an adorable boy popped up on my Facebook feed. He grabbed my attention and pulled at my heart strings. I inquired with the agency he was listed with and there were several unknowns about his health as they believe he has CP. I had to be realistic and realize that I cannot care for a medically needy child. I realize there are always unknowns when you adopt a child, but I need to set boundaries of what I can handle as a single mom.
After going through Rainbow Kids and looking at other deaf children I stumbled upon "Hands in Hands" and Pam Thomas (an amazing adoption coordinator for HiH). I talked to Pam for quite some time and we talked about the initial qualifications (net worth, health, etc) and she sent me information to see if I could come up with the numbers needed. When the numbers got me to where I needed to be for my net worth as a single person, she sent me some kids files. How could you not fall in love with EVERY child?!
Going through the kids' files was hard. How do you pick just one child? I had to think realistically and set parameters. I was open to either a boy or a girl. I want to adopt a deaf child. I set the age parameters to a current age of 4 to 8, maybe 9. I wanted the child to be old enough to be enrolled in school full time and of elementary age. I the child was too old, they would be enrolled at Vogel and I would have to switch teaching assignments for the two years they are at Vogel. Having all of the newness of parenthood at the same time as switching schools would be TOO MUCH.
Bryson. When I opened his file, I knew he was the one. He would be my son. He recently turned six (they had to best guess his birthday) and he is the most adorable boy! My heart melted.
On Sunday February 26th (my Dad's birthday) I submitted my letter of intent to China asking to be Bryson's Mom. China received it as they started their business day Monday February 27th. Pam told me it could take one day to one week to hear from China and receive my preapproval. Almost a week in that changed as she had another family receive their preapproval after two weeks. I had to be patient ... it was super hard ... and I had to remind myself daily to be patient.
TEN days later on Wednesday March 8th I got a text about 8:00PM from Pam to check my email. Oddly enough I had checked it 3 minutes before ... and had the usual junk mail. So I refreshed my email ... to find ... MY PREAPPROVAL letter from China. I called my parents ... then my brother ... and the rest is history!
Now begins the journey of Bringing Bryson Home.
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