BEDFORD - (February 14, 2022) - Adoption is truly a gift of love, and today as couples celebrate their love for one another, we look at the love of a Bedford couple for children.
Guy and Susie Rumsey have been married for over 58 years.
Before Guy and Susie Rumsey got married the two talked about adopting children.
During the birth of their first child, Susie had major health issues during her pregnancy and was advised she would not live through another. Therefore, if the couple was to have any more children it was going have to be through adoption. The Rumsey's adopted five children.
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The Rumsey's started in a traditional manner of adoption. The first two adoptions were through a legal adoption from an attorney and physician, when the couple was living in Indianapolis.
During this period of time, they were not doing surrogacy or co-parenting. " We wanted the child to be ours and ours only," said Susie. " The chances of getting a child was going to be a lengthy process. With our first two children it was an arrangement between the attorney and physician," Susie continued.
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The first two were two days, and six weeks old from different families. Two of the other children came through the foster care system, when the couple moved to Bedford. The couple then adopted another child when they were in their 50s.
When couples adopted, in the 1980's there were no support systems counseling services or financial support like what is given today.
The Rumsey's tried to provide a loving and nurturing environment. As with all children, in these situations the child trying to figure out why their parents no longer want them. In addition, the child readjusting to a different home, and trying to deal with the baggage that got them from the abusive home or situation. Sometimes a parent just not being able to take care of the child.
One of the two girls adopted by the couple had another sibling that one was able to reach out and connect with.
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In addition, one of their children needed professional help and was taken to a facility in Indianapolis to help with that care. During this period the Rumsey's would make a trip up to Indianapolis to visit and make sure her needs were being met.
The Rumsey's had support from their lifelong friends in being adoptive parents as well as the three churches they attended in Bedford. " When we announced in church that the adoption of one of our children was final the church erupted in hand claps and celebrated the new," said Susie.
" All six children came at different times in our lives, during all this we lost our restraunt due to an explosion (Noe's Chicken House), and tornado (Red Roster) which created some financial hardships, but we preserved through it all,"
" I went to college, went on to teach, got an excellent job, married her, had these kids, spent my life 55 years in the classroom and I think this was so remarkable," said Guy Rumsey. "However, at the time it was just normal life,"
" We love each child individually for who they are, we don't just love them because they are family, we love them for who they are and what they mean to us," Guy Rumsey concluded.
To adopt a child can be a very time consuming and stressful process. There is much longer wait for infants than for older children. Many older children wait for years without ever finding an adoptive parent.
Adopting a child from Foster Care is the easiest form of adoption. This form of adoption consists of three major parts
Certification
Placement and Transition
Severance to Adoption
There is about 135,000 children adopted a year in the United States. Excluding stepparent adoptions 59 percent are from child welfare, 26 percent from out of the country, 15 percent are from volunteered relinquished American babies.
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There are over 400,000 children in foster care and 114,556 cannot be returned to their families and are waiting to be adopted.
Editor's note: At the request at time of the interview the Rumsey's requested no photos be taken, or names of the children released as privacy for their children.
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