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A family for Sierra

The Barclays are a typical suburban family. Jon and Susannah live in Edmond with their daughter, Sierra. They have a nice home, a couple of dogs and lots of laughter ringing through their house.

It hasn’t been long, however, since Sierra came to live with them. Jon and Susanna had been thinking for quite some time about adopting. So, they turned to DHS and began the process.

“We saw a video of this young lady who was 17 and wanted to be adopted and have a family to guide her into adulthood,”Susannah said.“We had to get going right away because she was turning 18 in February and we found out in January. For DHS to be involved, she had to be adopted before her 18th birthday.”

One day before Sierra turned 18, the adoption became final.

“It’s a daily difference,”Jon said.“I come home and am excited to see Sierra and talk about her day. Just to see her is so wonderful. She’ll give me a hug sometimes and a smile and I just couldn’t imagine having that a year ago. It’s surreal sometimes.”

Sierra is a few months away from finishing high school, and plans to major in speech pathology at the University of Central Oklahoma. She has a message for those who are considering adoption.

“I know when you adopt younger kids, it’s easy and they don’t have as much baggage coming along with them,”Sierra said.“When they’re older, they’ve been around longer so more stuff has happened.

“But, if you treat us right, we’ll treat you right. If you show us love, we’ll give you love right back. We don’t need all the material things out there. Yeah, they’re good, but the main thing that’s important to us is love.”