Parents who adopted two brothers after tragic diagnosis floored by phone call

A couple have adopted three brothers after their journey to become parents was put on hold due to a devastating diagnosis.

Kate and Adrian, who have asked only to be referred to by their first names, had already adopted two boys aged three and ten months old when they received a call to say their baby brother was also on his way.

It was at the start of the first coronavirus lockdown back in April 2020 when they received the call from the social worker, who asked "are you sitting down?"

The couple, from Liverpool, said they couldn't face the thought of the baby growing up without his brothers, so they welcomed him into their home on September 30 last year.

To adopt the boys, they went through a process called, Foster for adopt, where approved adopters are temporarily approved as foster carers so a baby can move into the adopters’ home.

Kate and Adrian came to the end of their adoption process this week when the final adoption papers for their youngest, who is now 13 months old, were signed on October 18th.

They have shared their story through Adoption in Merseyside to mark National Adoption Week.

Before she met Adrian, Kate had been through many rounds of IVF and had suffered several miscarriages during a previous marriage.

Adrian had also been in a previous marriage but had never had any children, so a few years into their relationship the couple decided adoption was the best option for them.

Kate said becoming parents "meant the absolute world" to both of them, so they set out on their adoption journey in 2013.

Kate told the ECHO: "We'd done the first part of the adoption process and then we went off on holiday to Cambodia and Vietnam to come back and start the second part of the process. But then as we came back from holiday I started feeling a bit rubbish.

"I couldn't eat much and I couldn't breathe very well.

"It was all a bit strange when we came back and then a couple of days later I felt this quite wide mass in my abdomen and I thought that's definitely not right.

"I went to the doctors that day and they said I think you've got malaria or something that's definitely affecting your spleen."

At this point, Kate said her spleen had become very enlarged and was around a foot long in size.

After being referred for extensive tests, Kate was told the devastating news in December 2013 that she had a type of cancer called Splenic Marginal Zone Lymphoma.

The rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma was based in her spleen and she spent the following six months undergoing chemotherapy, and two years of further treatment.

Kate said: "Anybody who knows me will know I'm a massive optimist. I was really hopeful I was going to get treatment sorted and get back on track with the adoption process.

"We didn't know when but we were really hopeful that at some point in the future we were going to get it back on track.

"I was determined not to let the cancer become my life."

Around 18 months later, Kate and Adrian started the adoption process again and in the summer of 2016, the couple were accepted as approved adopters, during which time, Kate was told she was in clinical remission.

Kate said although this is different to being in full remission and her condition remains chronic, the lymphoma was at that point, and continues to be, at such a low level that it is undetectable in her body.

Kate said: "That same year at the end of October we got a phone call to say a baby boy has been born, he's a day old and we think he would be absolutely perfect for you."

The couple welcomed the baby into their home when he was 10 weeks old in January 2017.

Thinking back to everything they had been through to get to that point, Kate said it was an "absolutely amazing feeling" to bring him home and the legal side of the adoption process was successfully completed later on that year.

Fast forward to March 2019, and Kate and Adrian were on holiday in France with their then two year old, when they spoke about the prospect of adopting a second child.

Adrian said: "We got home from holiday and on the Tuesday we got a phone call from the social worker saying "are you sitting down? Birth mum is pregnant again, would you be interested in a sibling?"

Adrian said it felt like a "serendipitous moment" with them having only spoken about the idea a few days before, and they "jumped" at the chance.

Baby number two came home when he was 12 days old in June 2019 and after agreeing to adopt his brother in April the following year, they become a family of five in September 2020.

Kate said: "It's really nice to have all three of them close in age and all growing up together.

"It's lovely to see them together, they are so nice with each other, most of the time."

Adoption in Merseyside (AiM) currently has 40+ children waiting for their forever family.

The ages of the children range from 0-6 years and over half of the children are part of a sibling group but could risk being split or being in permanent foster care if a suitable family is not found.

Head of Service for AiM, Jennifer states that "We have lots of children needing loving and stable homes and we currently have a shortage of adopters.