How To Adopt A Child After Marriage

cole v. arkansas. wendy and stephanie. wendy speaking: "when you go through the adoption process they give you this inventory,a list of what you will and will not accept. it breaks it down by race, by disabilities, physicaldisabilities, mental disabilities, social disabilities, and function. and basically,wendy and i sat down and looked at that and i think we were both kind of appalled. thesewere kids who you know they didn't decide

How To Adopt A Child After Marriage, whether they wanted to be born with thesedisabilities or not with these disability all the really want is a home and somebodyto love them." narrator: steph and wendy live in arkansas with their two sons keagannow six is the biological child and their eight year old kyler was adopted from thearkansas foster care system when he was two.

wendy speaking: "that inventory i think madepart of the choice for us was we weren't going to decided between this or this kid that wegot and if they had special needs then they had special needs and what god wanted us tohave and wanted us to be a part of our lives it felt like he wouldn't give us anythingthat we couldn't handle." stephanie speaking: "our family is our family and that the wayour world revolves. when we did have to travel for professional conferences and stuff itsreally hard because you know you're looking forward to oh i can sleep without the tuggingand stuff.. but it never fails the next morning we are ready to go home the boys are our lives.." narrator: "steph and wendy hope to provide a permanent home for another child for arkansasfoster care system but they are disqualified

by act one which bars unmarried couples fromadopting." wendy speaking: "it's just a sad sad day when we decide as a state to limitthe amount of possible homes. it's ok to just let these kids suffer and let them age outof the system?" stephannie speaking: "i mean we spent almost a decade in public schoolsand i was six years and we've seen these kids all they need is a little bit of attention.so you know some undivided attention and love. and some support. a place to call home permanently."narrator: "steph and wendy are plaintiffs in the aclu challenge of arkansas adoption ban.a lower court struck down the ban in april 2010 the state is now appealing."to learn more, go to: www.aclu.org/cole