Mother’s Day brings the usual joy, and a bit of apprehension, to the Peddy family in Everett.
This is a beautiful, nontraditional family. When Julie Peddy, 48, decided at age 40 that she was ready to be a single mom, she hit the jackpot with Bethany Christian Services’ special needs adoption program.
She started as a foster mom, taking in 5-month-old Cameron, a blond, handsome infant.
“I knew that I was ready, financially, emotionally, and spiritually for a family,” Peddy said. “We became a forever family in 2002.”
Her term “forever family” means that in 2002, she was able to adopt Cameron. They live in a rambunctious household with three dogs and cats, a cockatiel, and one hermit crab.
Foster parents are closely screened before licensing, said Darby Baldwin, special needs coordinator for Bethany Christian Services in Seattle.
“When a family adopts, they are just looked at a bit closer to determine the best interest of the child for the future and forever part of their care,” Baldwin said. “Most of the families that we work with are appropriate for adoption status right off the bat.”
Peddy was a great candidate to adopt children.
“I think that a single-parent family is a great family,” Baldwin said. “It is important that the single parent has a great support system and people to talk to when necessary.”
Peddy was traveling on her job when she was given two weeks’ notice that Cameron was coming to live with her.
“Friends set up the nursery for me,” she said. “I fell in love immediately.”
Her own childhood was idyllic in Lansing, Ill.
“It was a close-knit neighborhood,” she said. “One friend had Down syndrome.”
That pal made an indelible impact on Peddy’s life. She learned about living with a disability.
A warm family also was a gift to Peddy.
She was adopted at birth.
This mother who adopted a son was herself adopted, straight from the hospital. Her father, a welder, and her mother, a bookkeeper, had older children, but when her mother was 40, she wanted another child.
They knew a woman who had already had a baby out of wedlock and was pregnant again.
Peddy said she adored her parents, so much that she never hunted for her biological family.
“I have a fear that if I found them, they would want a kidney,” she said.
Humor is cherished in the Peddy home.
The program manager for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration travels some in her job. Her village includes a nanny, great neighbors and friends.
It would be nice, Peddy said, if she had a partner who shared in the work and wonder of raising children.
“The hardest part being a single mom is not having somebody to play off,” she said. “You are both the good and the bad parent.”
But on the other hand, she doesn’t have to share any of the affection with anyone else, she said.
Mother and son love to fish and the family swims, travels, has neighborhood barbecues, goes to church and drive-in movies, and visits friends in the Midwest. She said it is possible to be a foster parent, work and be single.
So why is there apprehension in the household? It’s all about a 3-year-old girl Peddy has fostered since the toddler was 8 months old. She is Cameron’s half-sister.
They are keeping fingers and toes crossed that in mid-June, the little angel will be “released” and become available for adoption.
Nothing would make Peddy and Cameron happier than becoming a forever family of three.
Columnist Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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