My story of adoption started in November of 2001, when I was 1 of 2 children. My brother Hayden was 2 years older than me. My Mom and Dad had gotten foster licensed for a little boy under the age of 3.

Although that was our plan, God had a different one. I still remember that November night, Mom, Hayden and I were sitting in our van when the cell phone rang. The call was about 2 children, an almost 2yo, half Asian boy (Trey) and his sister who was almost 8 and

half Native American (Kori). Dad and Mom both said "yes" as soon as they saw the pictures.

In early December, our small family drove 6 hours to pick up our new members. Kori and I hit it right off, and have been best friends ever since. Hayden loved Trey too, with him being cute as a button, who

wouldn't? Anyway, we brought them home. Kori seemed a little worried when Mom said she would be homeschooled. In the end, she loved it.

Kori and Trey were legally adopted within 9 months. The next summer a friend of my Mom's asked us if we might be interested in 2 little girls. Mom said "maybe". The girls were our friend's adopted

daughter's half sister. She sent us some pictures. The girls were about 4 and 5 years old. Dad looked at them and said, "we'll take that one" pointing to the older girl. "They'll never split sisters up, we'll

have to say no" Mom replied.

The next day, Mom spoke with a social worker about the 2 little girls. The person there told her that they had to split the girls up because they weren't doing well together. We couldn't believe it! After a few

visits (and more 6 hour drives), our Linnea came home with us.

Within 6 months, Linnea was legally adopted. Linnea has Fetal Alcohol Effect so Kori and I have to remind her what to do, and when to do it. Sometimes it's tough not to get frustrated with her, so I have to remind myself it's not her fault, it's her Tummy Mom’s fault. Linnea is Linnea... OUR Linnea.

With everything settled down, we moved and my Dad was deployed for a year(he's in the Air Force). When he finally returned, we decided we needed a baby boy. This time we decided to foster (instead of legally free children), which would take longer because they have to make sure no one is available to take care of

that child in their birth family. The same friend, who told us about Linnea, was fostering a little red head who was 2 years old. She was a year younger than our friend's adopted son, who needed a lot of her time, and she couldn't meet the little girl's needs. This girl was stuffing her face full of food, not talking, and pulling out her hair. Our friend decided she couldn't give her what she needed, but recently

Kori and I had met the little girl and played with her a little. So our friend sent us pictures, and we asked the placement people at DSHS about fostering her.

On Valentines Day, we brought Kyla home. She was quite and shy, without any personality but loved our Dad right away. Only 3 days later, we got another call asking if we would be able to take Kyla's sister who was 5 and half African American. Kyla's sister missed Kyla very much and wanted to see her again. That same day we brought Sara home.

Sara and Kyla are now sweet, beautiful girls, as well as not one bit shy! It took a year and a half to legally adopt the girls.

I love adoption, and can't wait until I can do it myself. We have this family story about our children. We say that we got Sara when Mom was popping popcorn and out she popped! and that Mom was baking cookies when Trey cracked out of an eggshell! Even so... we lived in Alaska when Kori and Linnea were born in Washington and Idaho, in Seattle when Sara and Trey were born in Spokane, and in Montana when Kyla was born just 6 hours away in Spokane.

We hardly ever think about our family being adopted. We pray for their birth moms who carried them in their wombs, and for their birth dads. But WE are family.

I love having a family of 4 sisters, and 2 brothers. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, and I hope we adopt more! I would say the 6 most beautiful words are:

Adoption

Family

Mom

Dad

Brother

Sister

Kristianna Puckett (12 yo)