Full house, big hearts

The couple have adopted five children, including four siblings.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
SEBRING -- The day before Thanksgiving 2000, a baby girl just 8 days old arrived at Doug and Susan Miner's house.
That baby was Kiersten, now 4, the first foster child the Miners would adopt. The Miners began foster parenting in 1999, and have since adopted five of the 10 foster children they welcomed into their home, including four siblings.
They adopted Kiersten in January 2002. Adoption of biological siblings Anthony, 9; Samantha, 8; Jazmine, 7; and Casey Michael, 5, was final in December 2004.
Recently the couple was recognized with a Congressional Angels in Adoption award, with a nomination by U.S. Rep. Ted Strickland of Lisbon, D-6th. They and their five children went to Washington, D.C., to receive the award. Activities included an official ceremony and White House gala, a meeting with Strickland, and a tour of the U.S. House of Representatives while the House was in session.
About the institute
The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to raising congressional and public awareness of the millions of children in the United States and around the world in need of permanent, safe and loving homes.
Each year the coalition invites all members of the United States Congress to recognize adoptive parents from their home states through the Angels in Adoption program.
Doug is a firefighter with Alliance and Sebring fire departments. Susan is a preschool teacher for Mahoning County Educational Service Center.
She works with children with disabilities out of the educational service center's site at Beloit Elementary in the West Branch School District.
Susan said they recently recertified their foster parenting license so they can continue to be foster parents. They would also like to adopt one more child, a boy, to give them three girls and three boys.
Joys and heartaches
Doug said he and Susan have had their share of joys and heartaches as children they grew to love and wanted to adopt stayed a few days, a few weeks, or a few months, then returned to their biological families.
"You can watch [foster] children grow up, birthday after birthday, and then any day, they might be gone."
Although the four biological siblings' adoptions were finalized in one ceremony, they arrived as foster children at different times: Casey Michael, April 2000; Jazmine, May 2001; Anthony and Samantha, June 2002.
"The [social services] people are wonderful, but the system is very difficult," Susan said. "You have to stand your ground. Be persistent."
She said there are thousands of children in the United States waiting to be adopted, but many prospective adoptive parents turn away, not from the children, but from the adoptive process.
"It was a long and stressful five years during the process of fostering our children to the day we got to adopt them," Doug said.
"I would highly recommend fostering and adoption to anyone, because there is no better feeling than helping a child, and the need for good people with open hearts and homes is always there."
Doug said he and Susan are foster and adoptive parents simply because it is the right thing to do. Strong faith and strong families make balancing work and family activities possible.
Susan said the children all know that they are adopted and all part of the Miner family. The joint adoption ceremony for Anthony, Samantha, Jazmine and Casey Michael, however, raised some questions.
Required explanation
Kiersten believed she was not adopted because she was not in front of the judge with the rest of the children. Susan explained Kiersten participated in a similar ceremony and was adopted, but she was too young at the time to remember it.
"Doug and I love our children very much and feel God definitely had a hand in our blessed family," Susan said. "There are a lot of children who need to be adopted. People need to step up to the plate."