Father’s Day 2014 is this weekend and it will be an extra special event for new adoptive parents Graham and Tyrone Williams – it’s their first with their adorable new son!
The couple have been together for four years and welcomed their 16-month-old into the family at the beginning of the year. Since then they have celebrated his first birthday, his first steps and soon, their first Father’s Day.
This is Graham and Tyrone’s story of how they adopted through Rhondda Cynon Taf Council, to raise awareness of adoption and encourage others who are considering the process to go for it!
Graham, 33, and Tyrone, 27, decided they wanted to become parents after many years together. Rhondda Cynon Taf Council was recommended by New Family Social, the UK charity for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adoptive and foster families and families-to-be, as LGBT friendly. And friends had also told of their positive experiences with the authority.
Graham and Tyrone applied to adopt last April, and by May were attending training days in preparation of becoming parents. In November, they were approved and began the matching process.
The profiles of two young boys were shown to the couple, and as soon as they opened one of the profiles, they knew they had found their future son.
Within a few months the match was made and he officially became their son. At just 10 months old when matched, he went on to celebrate his first birthday, and take his first steps, with his new dads.
Tyrone is a special needs teaching assistant and had decided to take adoption leave to care for their son over the next year. He said:
“I have always wanted children and adoption was something we considered for a long time. I spent a lot of time on the forums on New Family Social, and the Council was recommended to us for being LGBT friendly.
“We have been so lucky as the process has worked so quickly for us. We have gone from applying to adopt to having our perfect son in our home in less than a year and we are so happy about that.
“He is just amazing, he has come along so well in our home and there are no words that can describe how we feel being his parents – we are already considering our next child!”
Graham, a police officer, added: “When I first provided my details during my first phone call, I was asked the inevitable ‘what’s your wife’s name?’
“However, for the benefit of same sex couples, that was the first and only time our sexuality was ever raised during this process. We were able to speak to another same sex couple at the information evening and our social worker has been brilliant throughout.
“When we decided we wanted to adopt our son, we spent a lot of time making a personalised photo story book and DVD for him, explaining his new family and how it worked, using teddy bears with our names.
“A lot of the existing material for same-sex adopters just didn’t work for us and we wanted something that was specifically about us, for our son’s benefit when he grows up.
“We immediately fell in love with him when we saw his profile. Our adoption journey started with some negative preconceptions of the process and the people involved, but it ends on such a positive note. Our social worker was brilliant and guided us through the entire process.”
We loved hearing Graham and Tyrone’s story and hope they have an amazing father’s day! If you are interested in adoption, then take a look at our website for more information and get in contact. You never know, you could be celebrating Father’s Day next year!