Special Needs Adoption
It is a special kind of adoptive parent who embraces the unique
challenges of parenting a special
needs child.
Spence-Chapin seeks families who are interested in raising a baby with
special needs, and who have the desire and talent to help that child
flourish.
Since 1995, ASAP, Spence-Chapin’s domestic special needs program
has placed more than 300 infants in loving homes. These babies come
from diverse backgrounds and have a variety of issues ranging from
risk of developmental delays to serious medical conditions.
Spence-Chapin also places toddlers
and older children waiting for adoption through our international
programs.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand recently acknowledged this program's
efforts by honoring it with a 2011 Congressional Coalition on Adoption
Institute Angel
in Adoption™ Award.
|
Our Families
In Their Own Words
|
|
Meet Our Staff
|
|
|
My story begins when I… found the profile for a special needs baby girl, with the same medical history as my adopted son, on Spence-Chapin’s Waiting Children website page. I called my husband and read him her profile. We both decided that we would be interested in learning more about her. I contacted one of the special needs social workers… at Spence-Chapin who indicated that I needed to be thoroughly knowledgeable about what may lay ahead before moving forward. This baby girl was at risk for some serious issues that we needed to be prepared to handle. This started a quest to learn everything that I possibly could about the challenges this child might face in the future. I remember waiting for the call… from our social worker to inform us whether the birth mother chose us as the family for her little girl. The answer was YES! The day I received that call from Merryl, my social worker, was one of the happiest days of my life and I will forever be grateful to the birth mother who chose our family to love and care for her precious baby. On placement day… we left our home at 2:30am for the long drive to New York City. The closer we came to our destination the bigger the butterflies in my stomach became. I had wanted this for such a long time. I was already in love with this beautiful girl and hadn’t even met her yet. When the interim care mother placed her in my arms, the bond was instantaneous. My heart felt complete. There isn’t a day that I don’t… thank God and my daughter’s birth mother for this precious little angel. She is as beautiful a child on the inside as she is on the outside. She has woven herself into the hearts of everyone in the family. Spence-Chapin helped fulfill a dream that I thought would never happen. Everyone was professional and caring.
My story begins when I… found the profile for a special needs baby girl, with the same medical history as my adopted son, on Spence-Chapin’s Waiting Children website page. I called my husband and read him her profile. We both decided that we would be interested in learning more about her. I contacted one of the special needs social workers… at Spence-Chapin who indicated that I needed to be thoroughly knowledgeable about what may lay ahead before moving forward. This baby girl was at risk for some serious issues that we needed to be prepared to handle. This started a quest to learn everything that I possibly could about the challenges this child might face in the future. I remember waiting for the call… from our social worker to inform us whether the birth mother chose us as the family for her little girl. The answer was YES! The day I received that call from Merryl, my social worker, was one of the happiest days of my life and I will forever be grateful to the birth mother who chose our family to love and care for her precious baby. On placement day… we left our home at 2:30am for the long drive to New York City. The closer we came to our destination the bigger the butterflies in my stomach became. I had wanted this for such a long time. I was already in love with this beautiful girl and hadn’t even met her yet. When the interim care mother placed her in my arms, the bond was instantaneous. My heart felt complete. There isn’t a day that I don’t… thank God and my daughter’s birth mother for this precious little angel. She is as beautiful a child on the inside as she is on the outside. She has woven herself into the hearts of everyone in the family. Spence-Chapin helped fulfill a dream that I thought would never happen. Everyone was professional and caring. |
|
Gretchen Viederman
Adoption
Specialist
Gretchen Viederman is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has
worked in adoption for over thirty years. For the past 6 years she
has focused her adoption work on placing infants with complex
medical diagnoses and syndromes as well as those with significant
risks due to prenatal exposure to alcohol and drugs and birth parent
heritable mental illness. |
|
|