Action news bring you monday's child each week to help find adoptive homes for north state children in foster care. This week we're changing things up a bit, by introducing you to a grown adoptee and the mother who raised him.
Sheri and Josh Kimple wanted to share their story to encourage other families to consider adopting older children, and siblings. Josh is 24 now, he was 12 when the Kimples adopted him and his younger brother Charlie,"If not for them I'd probably be under a bridge doing drugs or whatever with my biological parents, and that would not be good."
Sheri says Josh's teen years were extremely challenging. He was diagnosed with A.D.D.,and he was depressed, and angry. "Once properly diagnosed, medicated and treated...Josh has turned out to be a really nice young man."
Josh thinks having his little brother with him also helped him make it through. Sheri says says committment, humor, and a good support system helped her and her husband make it through. But there was never a thought of giving up, as "children aren't disposable." You don't give up, and you don't give them back, "How do you make it? You make it. You do it. Never ever whether stay with us or belong. Committed. We were there always and forever, simply the way it was."
"It's the hardest thing you'll ever do but just as with biological children, it's your world. My children are my world."
Josh says he's even thinking about writing a book about his experiences, "Did some things and said things shouldn't have but stuck with me and helped me through it and now I am the man I am today because helped me through it. Being adopted was one of the best things that ever happened to me."
