Featured Family
The Correa-Romero/Alvarez-Blasco Family - Puerto Rico
Our first adoption experience, after twelve years of marriage and infertility problems, is with Félix. He was placed in our home by the Department of Family (San Juan Regional Office) when he was 7 months old. He was a very charming, cute and happy baby. We had 6 months of supervised visits and we finalized the legal adoption on November 2001 when he was 16 months old. The experience was very good for us. It seemed to be like having our first child without having labor pains. Everybody said that he was God sent because of his physical resemblance to his father. We cannot tell the difference between having a birth child or adopting him. He is a very healthy and happy kid. The legal process seemed to us like a marriage between us and Félix. Our bonding was great from the beginning.
This is our second adoption experience: two birth sisters (Anabelle and Estefanía). Looking for a sister or brother for Félix Javier, the Dept. of Family called us to talk to us about having 2 girls that were sisters. The Dept. of Family did not want them to be separated because they were removed from the original home together (Anabelle was removed from the original home at 5 years old and Estefanía at 6 months old). After being removed they were taken to three different foster homes (first with a relative and two different foster homes.) After seeing their photos, in May 2004, we decided to take them in our house after being introduced to them and having them for a few weekends until Anabelle finished her first grade at the school. It was a challenge for us to deal with Félix, who was jealous at first, [reminding him that] he was asked by us if he wanted brothers or sisters to play with and he said yes; and on the other side, dealing with two little girls that needed badly our trust and love. Anabelle, said to us that she could not trust in any adult and we validated her feelings, telling her that we will help her feel that she could trust in us, and that we will prove it to her as long as she needed. With Estefanía, it was much easier because she wasn’t abused, only neglected and that is very different. It has been difficult for us to teach them to trust and be confident in us. That is why we are more inspired than ever in fighting for the Puerto Rico children in the foster care system to find a stable and permanent loving family. My husband and myself, our board of directors and staff feel the same and share our hurt. We see in the eyes of our children the others that have not found “emotional freedom”. Their attitudes, their character and emotional health is getting better every day and everyone that knows us are very encouraging to us to help “create” new outstanding lives for them. Every day turns to be an opportunity to make each one of our children a better person and we are very confident and faithful in God’s favor to help us raise our children properly to make them exceptional human beings.