A COUPLE who adopted two children before deciding on having their own biological kids have revealed they hope their children ‘never remember the day’ they came home.
Aimee, 27, and James Cooper, 29, from the West Midlands, adopted their son and daughter first as they worried that the children might settle more comfortably in an already child-free home.
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The pair, who met aged 20 and 22, began the adoption process just 12 months into their marriage as James agreed to fulfilling Aimee’s lifelong dream of adopting children.
Aimee told the Mirror: “I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t known I wanted to adopt. Adoption seemed like the perfect way to grow our family and give children a loving home.”
Soon, the couple were matched with an eight-month-old boy who couldn’t give him the stable home he needed, and his mother was already pregnant again.
And while the process was filled with ‘highs and lows’, having spoken to family and friends the couple felt ‘at peace’, and even decided to adopt the child’s little sister who was on the way.
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After the baby girl was born, she spent six months in foster care – required by law to give parents a chance to prove they are capable of looking after an adopted child – before coming home.
“When we met out little boy, it was love at first site,” Aimee explained. “When the foster carer said to him, ‘Your mummy and daddy are here’, I wanted to cry.”
The couple brought Casey* home in November 2017 and three-and-a-half months later, baby number two Ceira* would follow.
For the first six months of her life, the baby girl was visited by her birth parents three times a week – but Aimee was always confident the family would not make the changes needed to keep her.
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Eventually, Ceira’s adoption papers also went through, completing their very happy family of four – with Aimee describing their first day home as the ‘best day of their lives’.
Not long after, the adoption agency contacted Aimee and James once more as their children’s birth mother was pregnant again, and the pair were asked to consider adoption a third time.
“We knew we couldn’t cope with three under three,” the mother-of-two revealed. “It wouldn’t be fair on the child as we couldn’t give them the care and attention they needed.”
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But the parents hope that one day Casey and Ceira will be able to make contact with their other siblings, and will always support them if they wan to meet their birth parents.
“Our hope is that they will never remember the day they were told they were adopted,” Aimee continued. “But we openly talk about adoption, so hopefully it will never feel like a shock.”
And while adoption isn’t off the cards in the future, Aimee notes she would like to have children naturally as well – with the pair wanting six children in total.
“We’ve enjoyed parenthood more than we even could have imaged,” Aimee concluded, with James agreeing: “It’s the best feeling in the world.”
* Children’s names have been changed to protect their identities.
Instant Family is available on DVD, Blu-Ray and to Download & Keep from 10th June.
In other news, a mum has revealed her fury after a fellow pupil cut off her three-year-old daughter’s hair at nursery.
And a mum admitted online that she’s putting her disabled son into care so she can ‘forget he exists’ because ‘he is nothing’.
While a man who was given up for adoption at just three days old is stunned to find out he has a sister.
