The Todd Family Profile

We are so excited to welcome 1-2 girls into our family between the ages of 0 and 18. We are a family with 2 children who we adopted from foster care and are very aware of and experienced with the unique blessings and challenges that come with adopting children who have experienced trauma.

We are open to girls of any ethnic background with mild to moderate special needs and have training and experience with parenting kids who have experienced trauma. Prior to becoming adoptive parents, we had been foster parents and respite care providers for several years for children between 5 and 12 years old.

We understand the importance of family connections and are open to communication and visits with birth families and previous foster families as appropriate. We are willing to travel to maintain those connections, too, as much as is possible. We also want to honor their birth family by placing framed photos around our home of their birth family if the child(ren) would like to. With our two kids we adopted, we were given access to some of their baby photos and had those up before the kids even arrived. They loved walking into our home and seeing all of the photos and shared that they immediately felt like they were part of the family!

We want our children to be involved in extra curricular activities if they desire to and we also find it very important to spend one-on-one time enjoying activities that they like to do. From time to time we go on mom/daughter date or dad/son dates and vice versa and the kids love getting the one on one attention!

We cannot wait to meet our daughter(s)!

Family Activities and Traditions

Our names are Tim and Meghan Todd. We are 38 and 30 years old and have two adopted children, our daughter (age 12) and our son (age 10), who are biological siblings.

HIGH ENERGY and HUMOR: This describes Tim. He loves being a Dad and takes it very seriously and enjoys being silly with his kids. Tim works for the City of Portland, Oregon as an environmental systems maintenance technician, where he surveys defects in the sewer lines through the use of a robotic camera and controller. He enjoys his job and has flexible hours. Outside of work, he enjoys riding his bike, swimming, exercising, hiking, and watching movies. He loves spending time with his son and daughter playing, laughing, and having a great time. He is not afraid to talk about the hard things and has such a compassionate heart. Ever since he was a teenager he knew he wanted to be a foster parent and then over time that transitioned into adopting from foster care. His favorite holidays are Halloween and Christmas. Tim is half Hispanic and loves to embrace his culture by attending various cultural events put on by a nearby community and has traveled to Mexico to meet his biological extended family and would love to go back and take his family with him someday. He also wants his family to experience other cultures as well.

CREATIVE and ANIMAL LOVER: Meghan is a fourth-grade teacher at a Christian private school in Hillsboro, Oregon and has been teaching for 10 years. During her time teaching, she has taught 1st-4th grades and has specialized training in teaching English language learners. Outside of teaching, she enjoys spending time with her son and daughter, cats and goats, arts and crafts, watching movies, and trying new recipes in the kitchen. She has a calm demeanor and loves being with her family. Her favorite holiday is Christmas. She is very structured and great about keeping our family in a routine. She loves planning outings on the weekends.

Our Daughter who is 12 years old and a 5th grader has already started setting up her bedroom for her new sister(s) because she is so excited. she has shared that she is excited for a sister or two because "I can teach her things and help her feel comfortable and loved. I've been through trauma and I will understand what she's been through and be there for her." Our Daughter brings so much laughter and joy to our home and is so passionate about helping others. She enjoys playing outside, watching movies, interacting with friends (she often prefers to play with those younger than her), and she is a great role model. She loves doing arts and crafts, making bracelets, and singing to her Karaoke machine!

Our son is 10 and is a 4th grader. He is very active and loves anything to do with sports. He is very affectionate and is looking forward to having another sister to play with. He enjoys playing outside, jumping on the trampoline, fishing, camping, and hiking. He enjoys helping care for animals among many other things.

Together, we love playing games, hiking, watching movies, and spending time as a family. We have a lake nearby that we enjoy spending time at. We also enjoy Friday pizza nights and outings to have ice cream and other treats. We have the tradition of bringing in the Christmas season every year with the movie, Elf, and having a Christmas activity countdown beginning after Thanksgiving. This is a kids' favorite every year!

We are Christians and attend church every Sunday morning. Our son is a part of the kids program and our Daughter will start to participate in youth group coming this Fall.

Home and Community

We live in the State of Oregon about an hour east of the Pacific Ocean. We love to take beach trips as a family and play in the sand and visit aquariums and the Seaside Carousel Mall, where there are also bumper cars and arcade games.

Our home is nestled in a wooded rural area at the base of the Coast range (we live 10 minutes from the city of Gaston and 20 minutes from Forest Grove/Hillsboro area, where we spend a lot of time.

Our three-story house was built in 1991 and has 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. The top level has 2 bedrooms for the kids: our son in one and and our daughter and her future sister in the other. There is a kids bathroom on that level as well. The main floor has a kitchen and dining area, a living room and the master bedroom and bathroom. The daylight basement is where Tim's mom lives with a large bedroom and bathroom and kitchenette. It is a wonderful family home with 8 acres of land to play on and explore!

We live in the country in Gaston, OR with several neighbors close by. We have 2 indoor cats and 7 goats on our property that are kept as pets and are very affectionate. We have a large recreational lake about 1 mile from our home, where many families, including ourselves, spend their summers jet skiing, fishing, kayaking, swimming, and more.

Our kids attend the private Christian school that Meghan works at. It is a true family feel and the kids absolutely love it. The tuition is 100 percent covered by Meghan working there. They have many extracurriculars including sports and clubs. Our daughter enjoyed participating in volleyball and our son has really enjoyed the Lego robotic club. However, if needed, we are more than open to public school if certain services are needed. The small school district offers many sports and activities in which kids may participate in. We have the potential to request a transfer to a larger school district about 10 miles from our home, which offers more services for students who have special needs. Ultimately, if the child is performing slightly below or at grade level, he/she will most likely be able to attend the private school Meghan teaches at, which offers smaller class sizes and a great sports program as well. The school offers preschool through high school and has a 100 percent graduation rate

We spend a lot of time in the surrounding communities of Hillsboro and McMinnville, which both offer many activities for children such as parks, pools, cultural events, parades, libraries, and more. These communities also offer resources such as counseling and medical offices.

We have 2 cats: Abby and Piper. Abby is a 5 year old cat we adopted about a year ago from the Oregon Humane Society and is very easy going and does not mind the noise of children at all. She loves being petted and brushed Piper is a 12 year old cat who was originally a barn cat for her first 11 years but we love animals so much and felt bad for her being out in the cold in the winters that we transitioned her into being a house cat and she is LOVING her new found retirement inside. We also have 7 goats: Cheddar, Biscuit, Colby, Jack, Ernie, Thelma, and Louise. Meghan also keeps tropical fish. As you can tell, we are true animal lovers!

Parenting Experience

We have 2 adopted children from foster care and have been foster parents and have also provided respite care over the last several years. We have learned a lot through our parenting experience about how trauma affects children and have been taking additional trainings throughout this time to broaden our knowledge and understanding. We are especially very familiar with ADHD, tantrums, stealing, lying and manipulation. We are also very familiar with navigating mental healthy therapy and coordinating hospital services. We are advocates for our children's needs.

Apart from being a parent of kids who have been through trauma, Tim has experience with children working in children and youth ministry in his church for over 10 years before getting married. Apart from being an adoptive parent, Meghan has experience working as a teacher with elementary school kids for 10 years and prior to that working in daycare settings with children between the ages of infant and 12 years old for 6 years. She has a specialized training focus in English for speakers of other languages and inclusion of children with special needs and/or from other cultures.

Apart from basic foundations training for foster care and adoption requirements we have completed the following: Book titled: Confessions of an Adoptive Parent Karyn Purvis videos Book titled: Attachment, Trauma, and Healing: Understanding and Treating Attachment Disorder in Children, Families, and Adults. Workshop (6 hours): Healthy Engagement with Children of Trauma Workshop (12 hours): Caring for Children Who Have Experienced Trauma Workshop (6 hours): Verbal De-escalation Workshop (2 hours): Recognizing the signs and symptoms of sexual abuse

We both are trained and experienced in trauma based parenting and are ready to open up our home and hearts to another child and to help them form healthy attachments and boundaries.

Support

Tim has his mom living here with us downstairs and she has been a huge support as we have parented our two amazing kiddos. She loves being a grandma and has attended trauma based classes with us and is a great resource for childcare when needed. She is excited to welcome another grandchild into the family.

We both have many friends who have adopted children either as infants, internationally, or out of foster care and they have been resources and support for us, too. We have a few families who are trained in working with kids who have experienced trauma, who have offered to be a source of respite care for us when needed.

In regards to services, there are many counseling offices within 30 minutes of our home, which specialize in working with children. We also are surrounded by medical offices and hospitals within 20-30 minutes of our home. Although the children will be receiving healthcare through the state, we also will have them on our medical plan, which offers many services such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, mental health counseling, and more.

Motivation to Adopt

We have been dreaming and hoping to adopt another child or 2! When we first met, adoption was one of the very first conversations we had. We both knew we didn't want to have biological children. We know that our forever family is waiting out there for us already!

Although we know many challenges and changes will arise from bringing another child into our home, we are 100% committed to our entire family. We really really want another child or two and would love more than anything in the world and to extend our family to theirs.

Every child deserves to be loved. So, whether we adopt an infant, an six-year old, or an 18-year old, we want them to know that they are always a part of our forever family and that there is also a place to honor their birth family. We are completely willing to travel to help them maintain their connections. We can't wait!