My parents had foster children when we were growing up but it got difficult when they had four young daughters of their own so they decided at some point in the future they would adopt. After a lot of research, paperwork, lawyers and such in 1991 they went down to Peru for roughly three months and came home with my brothers. I'm a little fuzzy on all the details since I was only in 5th grade when it all happened. All I know was at the time it was very rare to adopt and even rarer to adopt internationally.
What I do remember is being in the airport and seeing my dad carry my two brothers down the runway and all of us screamed in delight. Everyone at the airport stopped what they were doing and clapped. Just thinking about it brings tears to my eyes, one of my parents friends video-taped it and we watch is every so often.
We instantly loved them, we girls felt that our parents brought them home for us. We argued about who got to baby-sit or feed them or change their diapers. The boys basically had five moms. We all remember when Mitchell took his first steps or how much Justin loved gum and cars.
We had such a close loving relationship with them all growing up. It is funny because I never even think about them being adopted and it catches me by surprise when people see a family photo and sometimes ask who are the two boys. I'm excited and love seeing what nice, handsome, smart young men they are turning into.
-Rachel Pierce
rpierce@myabc5.com
(This is at my sister's wedding in December, behind me are my two brothers, Justin on the left, Mitchell on the right.)