Stories of Love...
Greg and John Rodriguez started their family relatively early
in their relationship with the adoption of Zachary, now five. “Zachary’s
adoption was easier in some respects because it was a relative
adoption,” Greg Rodriguez explains. “My sister is the
biological mother of our son, but due to medical issues was not
really able to take care of him. He had already been placed with
the state while in the hospital when we stepped forward and said
we would adopt him.”
 That was a little over 4 and half years ago when Greg and John
became parents for the first time, and now they are at it again.
“When we decided to have another child we simply contacted
the state and they reinstated our foster license and updated our
home study. Rodriguez talks about their new foster-adopt son, Joshua. “He
is technically legally free, meaning he is a ward of the state
which has made it much faster and easier. His adoption should be
completed this fall.” Because Joshua, also now five has already been legally separated
from his biologic parents, outside influences have not been an
issue. “During Zachary’s adoption our biggest problem
has really been outside influences, luckily they had no real impact
on our adoptions but they have created a state of panic from time
to time.” Rodriguez recalls how the state had to prove beyond
a shadow of a doubt that his sister was not capable of raising
Zachary. “It did create waves, because she had church’s speaking
on her behalf. Our adoption with Joshua has been much smoother
and I think a lot of that has had to do with the fact that the
state knows us now because of Zachary. Going through six workers
with Zachary, we really got to know a lot of people and they got
to know us.” In the years since their first adoption, Rodriguez has not really
seen any changes in the system but knows that the world is much
more tolerant then it was five years ago. “I would say it
is about the same as it pertains to gay and lesbian adoptions,
there are a lot of other problems in the system that effect all
families.” Rodriguez continues. “We never felt that we have been viewed
differently or with any type of decimation as we went through the
system. We never had any issues brought up in relation to our family
structure; we were asked all the same questions that a heterosexual
couple would be asked.” Both fathers found it surprising just how welcoming their neighbors
and schools were about their family. “We moved from the meadow
brook area with Zachary when he was six months old to the Fall
City area in Redmond, which is traditionally a very conservative
neighborhood. Of course we did have some fears at the start, but
one of our neighbors had a daughter in the same class as Zachary
so we really go to know other parents and like any other neighborhood
people talk. So people knew and we never had any problems with
any of the neighbors.” “As far as teachers go, I have no problems whatsoever. We
were both in the Snoqualmie school district, and now in the Lake
Washington district, actually one of Zachary’s teachers last
year we had over for dinner.” While the Rodriguez family did not have the problems that some
gay and lesbian adoptive family’s are faced with, they do
realize that society and the system have a long way to go before
being 100 percent accepting. Rodriguez offers this advice for would be parents, “ you
need a lot of patience, read a lot and never be afraid of asking
a lot of questions.”
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