This looks like an interesting echo. With BBS's of today, using network echoes is a bit different in my mind, as it seems most boards I call all have the same
echoes, so I find myself dropping out of all the echoes, then going back and joining different echoes on each board I'm on, so I'm not constantly being bombarded with the same NEW messages on each board I call.

Anyways, being a dad for me came in a slightly different way. I met my wife (now ex-wife) about 2 weeks before her son turned 16. I remember it took 5 or 6
dates before she'd let me meet him. He was a hockey goalie and an average student with a couple of learning differences. We quickly bonded, and even though his biological father was still in the area, he made it pretty evident he didn't want to have much to do with him. It took him a while to stop calling
me Dave and start calling me Dad, but I have to say, that was a neat feeling.

My wife had gotten pregnant again about a year after having her son, but because of complications in her pregnancy, she both lost the baby and lost her ability to have any other biological children. I was alright with that, though,
and told her as much. We were both members of large families (she the oldest of 5, and me the oldest of 4, although I also have an aunt that's 2 years younger than I am, and growing up, she was like a sister to us). I had thought we had the family we were gonna have, until 2 years after we married.

<continued in next posting>
--- CNet/5
* Origin: Central Ontario Remote CNet (1:249/307.1)

<continued>

She walked in one day and asked me if I was ready to have a family of our own. At first, I was dumbstruck, like what was she saying? It had been two years, I thought she liked things just the way they were, and YES, I wanted a family of my own, but didn't push the subject. I asked her what she had in mind, and she told me, let's adopt a baby!

Long "beginning" of this story short, after almost a year of trying to adopt a baby in the United States, we decided to do two things: look outside the US, and look for older children.

We started by adopting two biological sisters, aged 4 and 6, from Vladamir, Russia. We went to Russia twice, the first time for 5 days to meet and interact
with them, after which we were asked if we liked those children. Like, DUH, yeah, we LOVE them. OK, go home and we'll tell you when you can come back. Wow,
uh, ok, so back home we went. One month later, to the day, we were told be prepared to travel again within 2 days. Back to Russia we went, this time for a
week, after which we got to come home with two of the most adorable young ladies that couldn't be any more perfect! Neither spoke a lick of English, and us? Russian? Uh, no. That made for some interesting first few weeks. Today, those two incredible ladies are 18 and 21, a senior in High School, and a Sophomore in college.

<continued in next post>
--- CNet/5
* Origin: Central Ontario Remote CNet (1:249/307.1)

<continued>

Another 2 years passed, and against my utterances about NEVER wanting to have to go through all that paperwork, wait time, stress, and expenitures, as Britney Spears was fond of saying, Oops, we did it again! ;-)

Now having the start of a young family already, we wanted to make especially sure any other adoptions would work to our favor. We located another agency that was doing something interesting. They had a large group of children from Bogota, Colombia, who would be traveling to the US to stay for an almost 3 week
period of time. They were told it was just a trip to getaway from their orphanges, etc, although we think the older children knew better.

We located two more girls, not biologically related, both 12 going on 13. They gave us an interpreter to use at the airport, so we could have a short dialog before taking them home. Neither my wife or I had taken any Spanish in our schoolings, so it was very similar to the Russian endeavor in the communication
department, but those were the coolest three weeks of our lives.

The girls then had to return to Colombia, hoping to see us come there and bring
them home as ours, but it would be TEN MONTHS before we made that trip. We actually stayed in Colombia for 7 weeks (Mother's Day to 2 weeks after Father's
Day). We did so much during that time, making sure the girls could see as much
of their home country as they could before becoming US citizens.
<to be concluded in the next response>
--- CNet/5
* Origin: Central Ontario Remote CNet (1:249/307.1)

<continued>

Bringing home two teenagers (as they were both 13 when we brought them home) made for some additional challenges. That was 12-13 years of their first lives that we hadn't had them for, and getting started in school at that age was also
quite challenging; both for them, and for us.

These two beautiful ladies are now both 24 years old; the older having moved out of the house at 18, and having a baby of her own, which she lost not 2 weeks after he was born. She tried again a year later and had another baby boy,
my second grandchild, who just celebrated his 2nd birthday. (My stepson's wife
had a baby girl, my first grandchild, who is 4 now). The younger Colombian Princess stayed home until only about 6 months ago, moving into an apartment with her boyfriend in the same building that my apartment is located in; hey neighbor! Both girls are doing great in life, living the way they want to, and very much close to their cultural heritage, whereas my younger two gave up on their Russian about a month after coming here, and they never looked back.

Well, as you can see, I'm a talker, so hopefully this can stir up other dad's to join in and share their stories. I was a teacher for close to 30 years, and I've met all sorts of parents, with all sorts of titles (Dr., Hon, Rev, Professor, etc.) but I told them all, their title of DAD beat them all!

Thanks for reading, Dave Weeks (Tonawanda, NY, USA)
--- CNet/5
* Origin: Central Ontario Remote CNet (1:249/307.1)

Hello Dotoran,

First... Welcome.

This looks like an interesting echo. With BBS's of today, using network echoes >is a bit different in my mind, as it seems most boards I call all have the sam
echoes, so I find myself dropping out of all the echoes, then going back and joining different echoes on each board I'm on, so I'm not constantly being bombarded with the same NEW messages on each board I call.

As with mothers, being a dad can have it's wonderful and joyous moments as well as it's stressful and troubling moments. Sometimes just having a place to voice one's feelings of joy or sorrow can be helpful. I would like to think that
this echo is or can be a place to do that. To vent, ask questions, express feelings and concerns regarding being a father.

Again.... Welcome!


Jeff

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-4
* Origin: Fidonet: The Ouija Board - Anoka, MN - bbs.ouijabrd.net (1:282/1031)