Reporter Interactive | UM adoption counselor supports... -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 9/17/2000
Last Visited: 9/17/2000
But when Sam and Karen Samford adopted Emily Samford 24 years ago, adoptions in Texas were closed.
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Karen Samford – a student at Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University – will be consecrated as a United Methodist diaconal minister in June.She currently is director of servanthood at White's Chapel United Methodist Church in Southlake near Fort Worth.The Samfords have another adopted child, 19-year-old Cliff.We could not have children of our own, but we had always wanted to adopt even if we had been able to have children, Karen Samford said.We went through a grieving process when we be not able to have children, but Emily and Cliff were the babies that God wanted us to have..
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Indeed, Karen Samford says that would-be adoptive parents should take her advice and be willing to seek outside counseling from a professional any time during the adopted child's adolescence that the adoption becomes a sensitive issue or problem.Even though its main office is in San Antonio, Methodist Family Services (formerly the Methodist Mission Home) has the Arlington branch and an office in Houston as well.While all but two of the 40 or so couples who are currently waiting to adopt are from Texas, the San Antonio agency works with would-be parents from other states if a child has special needs.