I have been married to Annette for over 26 years. We met on an Archeology dig in Israel. We married and our first daughter was born in Jerusalem. She was followed by three more daughters who are now all adults. I graduated from Brigham Young University with a degree in Middle East Studies, and after two years of graduate work at the University of Utah, I joined the Air Force. Upon leaving the Air Force, I taught for a time at BYU, then worked for the Boy Scouts of America in Washington DC.
Our first foster son came to us while living in the State of Maine in 1989, when our oldest daughter was 9 and our youngest was 2. He was 11 at the time and stayed with us for 12 years. We resumed fostering one year ago with the placement of a 9 year old autistic boy. We will be finalizing his adoption in February. When our licensor presented our family's home study for approval, she predicted I was destined to become a mover and a shaker of things.
Much to the chagrin of the Division of Child and Family Services at times, she has been proven correct. I facilitate a group of about 50 foster/adoptive/kinship families in Utah County and have started an online support group in Utah. I am nearing the end of my term on the Regional Adoption Committee, but our local foster/adoptive parent association is already making plans to keep me busy.
After learning so much about autism in this past year, and raising a bit of a fuss within our region of DCFS about case worker preparedness to recognize and work with autistic children, the region director recently asked for our help in arranging autism awareness training for the workers in our region. I am a stay at home dad and do work with children in specialized care and medically fragile, with a special interest in those with mental illness.
