Adoption of the Month

We are Robert and Danya Rogers. We believe that God makes families as He sees fit and they don’t always come together in the way in which we call normal. We now have four children, all of whom are adopted. Two of our boys were adopted at birth, our daughter came to us at age 15 (she has a unique story as well), and this is the story of our oldest son, KC. On January 8, 2025, a dream of ours came to fruition after waiting 23 years. We were finally able to adopt our oldest son, KC. KC came into our lives when he was 10 years old. Robert was serving as pastor of a church, and he was KC’s pastor. KC’s parents were deceased, and he and his sister were living with their grandparents who were finding it difficult, at their age, to rear preteens. The family, knowing that we had adopted our two boys, pursued us to adopt KC and his sister as well, and we agreed to do so.

Our adoption lawyer recommended that we move the children into our home to see if they would blend in well with our two sons. It was just prior to Thanksgiving, and we had a wonderful Thanksgiving and Christmas. We agreed to make an Open Adoption Agreement with their biological family (grandparents and an aunt and uncle), and so we met in January to discuss the agreement. Unknown to us, they planned to seize the children, which they did, and read a letter to us saying that they had changed their minds. We were heartbroken. We decided to file a legal action that would request the state to appoint a Guardian Ad Litem to help make a final decision as to where was the best place for the children to be placed. Unfortunately, the Guardian Ad Litem thought it was best for the children to stay with their biological family.

KC’s life was horrible with his biological family due to alcoholism and drug abuse. He finally escaped at the age of eighteen but unfortunately, KC did not contact us. We had moved on and left the state. Robert had messaged him several times on social media after he turned 18 but he had been told that we were horrible people and he did not respond.

Danya was on Facebook years later and saw KC’s page. She reached out to him, and they started to talk. He told her what he had gone through, and it was, again, a heart-breaking story. KC told Danya that he felt that money was the key factor for his biological family wanting to keep the children. Apparently, there was some inheritance of which we were unaware.

Robert and Danya decided that if we wanted to have a relationship with KC, we need to spend time with him. So, we flew to Washington and spent a wonderful week with him. When we were leaving, KC hugged Robert for a long time. He also hugged Danya, but Danya totally understood his bond with Robert, since he helped him with the grief process of losing both his parents at such an early age.

During the 2023 Christmas holidays, Danya asked KC if he wanted to become our legal son as we had planned when he was 13. He said yes. KC’s sister was married and was in a happy place. We were blessed to find Mark Iverson, an adoption attorney, and his lovely daughter Sarah, a paralegal but training to be a lawyer, to help us through the process. Sarah shared that she also was adopted.