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Current Newsletter:
July 2010
Its been a while since I have written. We have grown a
little larger since late 2009. Carlos, Cristian, Jeremy
and Richard's adoptions all finalized. These boys were
all adopted by me as a single parent. Alex Q.'s adoption
will be finalized this month in Orange County. Andre's
adoption might be finalized by the end of 2010. I am
starting the adoption process for Dimitri, Donald and
Devin. All three of these boys will be private
adoptions.
Our new family members include Dimitri (10) who came to
us from Ukraine via Alabama. He was adopted by another
family from Alabama in 2009. That family felt like the
services and supports in their state were not meeting
Dimitri's needs and they decided to place him with
another family where his unique needs could be better
met. Donny and Devin are 18-year-old twins from the
state of Washington. They joined my family after their
18th birthday but at least they have their "forever
family" now. Better late than never, Stephen (16) was
finally placed with us after over a year of visits. All
of the new guys are fitting into the family well. Each
of our new family members have their own challenges that
made them difficult to place in a more traditional
family. I think that's what makes our family so unique.
We are able to meet the needs of children with a wide
range of disabilities and abilities. Not only are these
four children/young men thriving, as the rest of the
Belles-Silcock boys/men are, but they now don't have to
spend their lives in foster care or other institutional
settings instead they have a "forever family" to count
on for the rest of their lives. Isn't this what it is
all about?
Of course, some people think foster care is a better
option than a large family. For example Donny and
Devin's adoptive placement with our family, prior to
their 18th birthday, was thwarted by Orange County
Social Services. Although the social workers in
Washington and my home study agency agreed that the
placement of these two young men with my family was
appropriate, without any explanation to me, Orange
County Social Services decided to not approve any
placements that required an ICPC. Its pretty sad that
Orange County Social Services has such power but does
not even offer me any explanation. Also interesting that
Orange County Social Services currently has two
children, with very challenging mental health issues,
adoptively placed with me. Orange County Social Services
staff has expressed nothing but praise for my
willingness to take on these boys and for the positive
behavioral changes they have made since their placement
with my family. In any case, maybe one day someone in a
decision-making position at Orange County Social
Services will sit down with me face-to-face to discuss
the rationale for their decisions effecting my family. I
envision this happening when they need me as a placement
for another Orange County child with challenging issues.
This summer has brought a little adventure for the guys.
Eight of the boys filmed an episode of the television
show "House" last month. This month, Jeffrey shot a
feature film. The working title of the movie is "Terri"
and the cast included John C. Reilly (Step Brothers,
Cyrus, etc). The boys enjoy acting and it was nice to
see them get a few parts this summer. Between summer
school and summer camp a few of the boys traveled with
me to Moorea (South Pacific). They has a wonderful time
snorkeling, jet skiing and swimming with the sting rays
and sharks. James has been practicing with the high
school football team over the summer and hopes to make
the freshman team in the fall. Jeffrey, Javier and
Mathew are working at Camp James all summer. Everyone
else is keeping busy at the beach, the skateboard parks
or the local amusement parks.
On a very sad note, our son, Justin Damien Silcock,
passed away on June 27, 2010. He had been hospitalized
for a while and it was becoming very clear that he was
not going to recover from this latest kidney infection.
In fact after several weeks in the hospital Justin's
kidneys completely stopped working. Additionally Justin
was no longer able to breathe on his own. All of his
vital organs were shutting down very quickly. Although
we all knew that Justin was dying, we could not bring
ourselves to face the fact that we were eventually going
to need to stop all of the life-saving measures and
turn-off the machines that were keeping Justin alive. We
never did have to face that day, because Justin's body
completely shut down on its own. It had been a life of
ups and downs since Justin was discovered to have Ig A
Nephropathy He beat the odds many time. He even had a
successful kidney transplant. Unfortunately the Ig A
Nephropathy never left his body and soon attacked his
donor kidney. Despite his medical issues, Justin lived a
full and interesting life. Even two days before he went
into the hospital for the last time he had a chance to
go to the movies and to his favorite place,
Chuck-E-Cheese! We kept Justin involved with all of our
family activities. Sometimes he was too tired to fully
participate but we always made sure he had the
opportunities. Justin had been a member of our family
since the age of three, he was 14 1/2 years old at the
time of his death. We will miss Justin's fighting
spirit, feisty personality and beautiful smile.
More soon,
Ann
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Past Newsletters
May 2009
January 2009
October 2008
June 2008
March 2008
Holiday Letter 2007
November 2007
August 2007

Holiday Letter 2006
November 2006
April 2005
April 2004
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