A Family For Every Child
A Family For Every Child
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Bridgette
Bridgette

Bridgette
Washington

Basic Info

Bridgette

Age: 36
Sex: Female
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian
Religion: Christian

Child Preferences

Age: Infant to 12 years old
Sex: Either
Max Number of Children: 12
Race/Ethnicity: Caucasian, African American, Asian, Native American, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, Mixed, Bi-Racial, Unknown


Special Needs the Family is Open To: Any Child (Open to Discussion), Animal Allergies, Asthma, Drug Allergies, Environmental Allergies, Food Allergies, Physically Aggressive to Other Children, Difficulty in Attaching, Difficulty Making Friends, Encopresis, Lying, Poor Social Skills, Self-Abuse, Stealing, Wets the Bed, Born with HIV issues or HIV Positive, Drug Addicted at Birth, Failure to Thrive, Fetal Alcohol Effected, Low Birth Weight or Premature, Prenatal Drug Exposure, Non-Ambulatory, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, Physically Disabled-Mild, Deaf, Hearing Impaired, Speech Delays - Mild, Speech Delays - Moderate, Vision Impaired, Anorexia/Bulimia, Hoarding, Overeating, Academically behind due to poor attendance, Cognitive Delay - Mild, Expulsion(s), Has Behavior Problems in School, Mild Learning Disabilities, Moderate Learning Disabilities, Speech or Language Impairment, Suspension(s), One/Both Parents Diagnosed with Depression, One/Both Parents Diagnosed with Schizophrenia, One/Both Parents Have Alcohol Addiction, One/Both Parents Have Drug Addiction, One/Both Parents Diagnosed with Bipolar, Exposed to Domestic Violence, One/Both Parents Have Had a Mental Diagnosis, Child has had a disrupted adoption, Multiple Placements, Residential Treatment History, ADHD, AIDS, Arthritis, Cancer, Cerebral Palsy, Diabetes, Down Syndrome, Epilepsy, Heart Disorder: May Require Surgery, Hemophilia, HIV, Muscular Dystrophy, Seizures, Sickle Cell Disease, Sickle Cell Traits, Spinal Bifida, Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Previous Psychiatric Hospitalization, Requires Medication For Psychiatric Condition/Mental Health Diagnosis, Requires Counseling/Therapy, Runaway - Past, Willing to Maintain Contact via Mail with Bio Family, Willing to Maintain Contact with Past Foster Parents, Willing to Maintain Contact with Bio Grandparents & Other Relatives, Willing to Maintain Contact with Bio Siblings, Child Identifies as LGBT, Sexually Abused in the Past

Environment

State: Washington
Neighborhood: Country/Rural
Residency:
Children in the Home: 1
Pet(s): Farm animal(s)

Work

Bridgette

Occupation: Emergency Medical Technician

Adoption Agency

Agency: A Family For Every Child
Worker: Stephanie Cummings
Worker: s.cummings@afamilyforeverychild.org
City: Eugene
State: Oregon
Zip: 97402

Family Description

I have spent the last 1.5 years with two little brothers that recently went back to their moms care permanently. This was a long and wonderful process to be a part of. I had a third foster son, age 9, that was with me until he was moved to a kinship placement. My current foster son is aged 16 and is an emergency placement. I am contemplating only taking on emergency placements since my long term placements returned home. I have had a great experience with my two little boys and still get overnights once or twice a month since their mom and I became good friends through this journey. I own my own home and have chickens and an assortment of flowers in my gardens. I have an amazing support group comprised of my family as well as close friends. My village, including my boy’s biological parents, are all working towards goals for our shared children. We have started the process of reunification and, while difficult, it’s why I became a foster parent in the first place. I would love to grow my family through adoption and have talked with the boys about this on many occasions. As I said before, they are placed in my home through foster care, but they have become a long-term placement and are very bonded with my family. They have a strong bond with my parents and call them Grandma and Grandpa. The boys love spending time at the farm "helping" grandpa as well as hanging out with my dozen or so nieces and nephews that we often visit. This spring we ventured into t ball and kick started the summer with both boys in soccer with several river camping trips down and more to follow. Camping, hiking, beach combing, and time spent on my parents farm is normal for us. We love our little area of our state.

Preference Description

Hoping to adopt a sibling group of any ethnicity with at least one member under 3 years old. Would consider minor to moderate medically correctable conditions, special needs, learning and developmental delays. More severe on case by case consideration.

Soha family looking for my forever kids!

I would like to adopt a sibling group. Ideally they'd be around a half dozen siblings under the age of 8. But realistically I know that's not feasible. I would consider all sizes including groups of 2-3 kids and up to age 10 with at least one in the younger range. I am open to boys or girls. Hoping for both. My 3 children now are Native American and I have formed a relationship with the biological parents of my two brothers and their parents and grandparents and we work together to encourage their learning and understanding of their tribal culture. I have hosted family gatherings for them for holidays and birthdays so that many family members could attend rather than one parent per visit for celebrations. For children that would become a part of my family in the future I would help them learn what ever their cultural background is and help them in maintaining healthy relationships with any former foster homes, siblings or other biological family. I prefer to adopt a child of Caucasian, Hispanic, Black, Native American, Middle Eastern, Asian, Pacific islander, Biracial or Mixed ethnic background. I am open to children with many, many special needs. In general, Hoping to adopt a sibling group of any ethnicity with at least one member under 3 years old. Would consider minor to moderate medically correctable conditions, special needs, learning and developmental delays. More severe on case by case consideration.

Daily life

My name is Bridgette Soha. I am 34 years old. I currently have 3 children. My children are all with me through foster care. My oldest is 9 years old and my two youngest are 4 and 5 years old and are biological brothers. Our daily activities often consist of a mix of daycare, parental visits, learning time, outdoor activities, family time including story reading, trips to our family farm for animal viewing and much more. We like to go to the some of the many local children playgrounds available in our area and frequent those quite often.I attend the local gym a few days a week and the boys enjoy walks with me or my parents in our beautiful scenery throughout the week. We spend a fair amount of time at my mom and dads house and plenty of time with family friends as well. When we have gatherings at my sisters house the kids love hot tub time. During the summer we like to go to the rivers and beaches, we live in the wonderful Pacific Northwest and it results in serene walks. We love to partake in plenty of hiking and camping in the summer as well as swimming at the Bogachiel River and enjoying BBQs at home or with family and friends. Our family is a typical loving family that enjoys being together for holidays and enjoy the company of each other. If we can make an excuse to come together for a dinner or BBQ cook out at my parents we do. I work for the local ambulance services and have the option of changing my schedule for different shifts to accommodate any sort of schedule I may need. As of right now the shifts I have chosen works for my family schedule but it remains flexible.

Home and community

We live in a single family 3 bedroom home in a rural country neighborhood. We have neighbors that have many different kinds of poultry that always draws the attention of the kids as well as neighbors that have horses and goats. I have the local K-12 public school just two miles down the road from my home. We also have neighboring area schools as options for enrollment. My 9 year old attends a school district about 35 miles from us. We work out bus and carpool schedules for him to continue with his school. My 4 and 5 year old attend their tribal school which is less than 20 miles from home. One attends the K-12 and the other attends Head Start. We have amazing local libraries for books and movies and special reading programs throughout the year. Our local gym has family swim and swim lessons. Local area clubs have a lot of different sports options, t-ball and soccer being the two that we have taken advantage of. There is also 4-H and FFA (Future Farmers of America), FBA (Future Business owners of America) and other clubs for the kids when the time comes. We have a local park that also includes basketball and tennis courts as well as a skate park, some history viewing of a large locomotive, a retired tank, and other intriguing items. We have several churches available in addition to my childhood church that have excellent and engaging Sunday school programs that are open to all families regardless of church community.

Parenting Experience

I've grown up in a large family, both immediate and extended. I have spent many hours babysitting, starting with my own siblings and then plenty of times with my friends children and my own niece's and nephews. I helped a family member running a home daycare while in my early 20's. I have also taught pre-k Sunday school. Later in life I have continued to have a close connection with my family and friends children. Starting in summer of 2020 I became a fully licensed foster parent and have been parenting the same two brothers since, with a third who has moved on to a kinship. As they began to feel more safe around me they showed more behaviors they didn't show at first. We are working on attachments, lying, physical aggression at times, and other behaviors. I have been watching and reading on TBRI in my own time to improve my responses to their meltdowns and occasional tantrums. This year we have added a 9 year old boy on the autism spectrum to our home. We have been learning how to properly handle outburst and meltdowns, some violent behaviors and many other issues. This has been by far my biggest challenge, but I was able to quickly adapt. One thing I discovered is visiting with the other foster home that has his sibling as often as possible has seemed to help some of his behaviors. I have read E.M.D.R. Therapy by Francine Shapiro and The Deepest Well by Nadine Burke Harris. Rereading The Connected Child and following that with The Connected Parent. I have completed Swindells Trauma Informed Parenting parts 1,2 and 3. TBRI module 1: connecting principles, active participant in DCYF state offered class Supportive Facilitated Discussion Group: TBRI Connected Child Book Club

Support

My parents, siblings, and close friends are my support group. All of them have helped me with caring for the boys including babysitting, spending quality time with them, sometimes making us dinner when we are overly busy, picking them up or dropping them off when I am stuck at an appointment. My support group that I use often mostly reside in Forks with some that come from out of the area a few months a year. These are my siblings that have some of my nieces and nephews and have encouraged their own kids to bond with my boys. I cannot emphasize enough the amazing support group that I have. Before I started foster care I had about 5-6 people that said I could rely on them for help. Since starting foster care other friends and family members have stepped up and have also been a huge help whenever I need it.

If I were to adopt a child of Native American ancestry I have several family members that are part Native American as well as a deep connection to my foster kids families and am able to enroll them in a tribal school and they can participate in culture events including drumming and more.

My best friend is an immigrant from Mexico and I have a great relationship with her family. Her kids are bilingual as are her nieces and nephews that we camp and swim with in the summer time. I love Latino culture, traditions, and food and my friend would help me share this with any Latino/Hispanic children that I might adopt.

I have many friends in my town of different races. If I have a child of another race and culture I would seek out opportunities for us to learn and experience their cultural traditions together. I would make an active effort for my kids to learn and feel included with their cultural traditions.

Motivation to Adopt

I have always wanted to be a mother including an adoptive mother. My younger self saw me married with lots of kids to include both bio and adopted. As time has progressed I have not gotten the chance to have my own kids. Given a family Hx of fertility issues in our 30's its less likely of biological children ever happening. I am at peace with this as I feel I was always meant to be a mother and that what's meant to be will come to me. I have a strong desire to adopt and want the opportunity to mother my own kids. I am working hard so that one day, hopefully soon, I can have the opportunity and privilege of being someone's mom. My biggest challenge isn't being single as I have an army of support behind me. My biggest challenge is the people deciding if a single parent will be a suitable placement for a sibling group or medically needy or high behavior child. We make it work, my boys and my support group of family and friends. I have no doubt that I am capable of taking on several more children as well. Also my 4 and 5 year old are set to be permanently back in their bio mothers care in less than one month. My 9 year old and his sibling are transitioning into a relative placement as well.

I would never give up on a child or children, adopted or not. I have the support I need to be a successful mother. I just need my forever kids. Forever means forever.

Hot tub time!

Family togetherness is huge in my family. We have dinners, game and movies nights several times a month between our parents house and all of our adult childrens houses in town.

sunrise at my house

The sunsets and sunrises here are often gorgeous and the stars on clear crisp nights are an incredible experience.

Beach combing expedition on Rialto

Rialto and La Pushes beaches are our preferred local beaches but Kalaloch (also local, just a little more of a drive) are pretty awesome too. We go rock hunting, beach combing, tide pool exploring, and love to play in the sand.

My sisters

This pic is a few years old from one of the last thanksgiving at our grandparents house. We have strong family traditions of getting together on holidays and such. Now that our grandparents are passed away we carry in these traditions at our parents and our own homes.

One of ten hens

One of ten hens and they each and everyone have their own personalities. The boys love them and love feeding them and helping gather their eggs.

More beach combing

We take trips to the beaches often as it is one of our favorite pastimes. Good or bad weather the beaches here are beautiful.

My mom and I both volunteer for the fire dept

My mom have been volunteering for our local fire department for more than a few years. It is one of the many ways we like to give back to our community.

My parents cattle herd

These are the cows my boys love to help grandpa feed when they visit the farm.

They are sweet cows and steers

This is Buck and he is the friendliest little steer. Abandon at birth he was raised by my mom and dad and loves to play with the dogs.

More cow pics

Some artsy photos my sisters like to take.

My house

My house a is a cozy 3 bedroom house nestled between my neighbors and backing a cow and horse pasture with two resident horses there as well as neighboring goats and the elk herd likes to stay there during hunting season. It is a safe place that the hunters cannot access and they know it.

My kitchen and dining room

My kitchen and dining room overlook my back yard and the neighbors pastures.