Part 2 of 3

In the previous post, I reviewed Brittany and Sherry Kyle’s children’s book, My Special Someone. Today, you’ll learn more about Sherry Kyle, as she shares her story about adopting her daughter, Grace.

During an interview with Shari, she told me:

When I was 10, I saw a 1958 movie called The Inn of the Sixth Happiness with my mom and my sister. The movie is based on the true story of a missionary in China who leads 100 Chinese children from one area of China to another during the Japanese-Chinese war. Ever since then, I’ve wanted to adopt.

Fast forward to many years later when I got married. I had three biological children and when they were 1, 3 and 5 I started collecting information from different adoption agencies. I was mainly focused on China or Korea because that was the image God placed on my heart many years ago.

I collected information for a good year before talking to my husband about it. I didn’t want him to squelch my dream. When I finally did talk to my husband about it he said to me, “This isn’t a secret. You talked about adoption even in college, Sherry.”

As Sherry and her husband began to pursue adoption seriously, a friend from church who did respite care helped Sherry to see the need for foster-adopt families:

She said, “Sherry, there are so many kids needing homes right here where we are.” So that’s what we started to pursue. We went to three different agencies and to our county’s public agency. Finally, we decided on a Christian non-profit agency, feeling as if they’d understand the reasons why we wanted to adopt.

Four months after completing their home study, they saw their future daughter’s photo in a photolisting book. She had been born 10 weeks early, weighed only 2 pounds, 12 ounces at birth and had a high risk of having cerebral palsy due to her premature birth. She was not yet legally free for adoption.

The Kyle family accepted the risk, and a month later, Grace came to live with them. They fostered her with the intention of adopting her when she became legally free. Because of some complications with the termination of the birth parents’ rights, Grace’s adoption was not finalized until almost two years later. Sherry says:

The hardest part was waiting. Once I got my baby I knew she was mine. I bonded really quickly with her. It didn’t matter that she was a foster child. She’s the picture I had in my mind since I was 10.

In the next post, 6 tips for families considering foster-adoption