Dan Dreesen's Journey Through Adoption

For Dan Dreesen and his wife, their journey through adoption started in 1999 when they decided to adopt through the state of Missouri. Dreesen says that adopting through the state of Missouri is a bad idea because of the lack of help and services it provides. Tim and Jeff Dreesen are his only children adopted from the North West Missouri area. The Dreesens then decided that adopting through the state of Nevada would be a better choice for them and their family. This was the beginning of Dreesen’s long but exciting journey through adoption that would become one of the most important parts of his life. Before jumping into adopting children, Dreesen had to take adoption classes for three months, but only for about one night a week. During these classes, Dreesen talked to other parents about what it is like to adopt children who have adopted before. This is where he could learn about what it’s like to adopt children from

You have to teach them all of the rules, but you get to have a lot of fun with them, too, and that’s the best part-that you get to experience that feeling of having a child.”

Dreesen mentions that the worst part about adoption is that some children have been moved around from place to place, told that they are part of a family, and then the family sometimes gives them back, putting them back into the adoption system. He says that this is called a “disruption”. Dreesen says that things like this teach a lot of mistrust to the children that can carry on until adulthood. He mentioned that adoption in Northwest Missouri is terrible, and that there are not very many services to help out with the children.

Dreesen says he wouldn’t have done anything differently with regard to adopting children. He does say it gets tough though because they might not show symptoms of problems until later, problems such as anger issues and psychological