(When you buy or sell a home with The Luby Group of @properties, you’ll also be helping find homes and “forever families” for children in foster care. The Luby Group is donating a portion of each 2018 sales commission to help Let It Be Us inspire foster care adoption in Illinois.)
Wendy and Bob Noonan, self-deputized biological empty nesters of three free range young adults, took two little boys, Jonathan and Kevin, into their family through foster care in the early days of their lives. They were finally able to sign them on to Team Noonan, bringing them permanently into the family through legal adoption in late 2017.
As empty nesters, Wendy and Bob welcomed the opportunity to breathe new life into their large and quiet home that was once filled with their first 3 children who have all graduated from college and have been enjoying their first full-time professional jobs in Chicago and Denver.
Their adoption day was held in a Chicago courtroom, high above the rooftops of families all over Chicagoland, and they turned the adoption day in court into a family affair. The Noonan’s three oldest children, Patrick, Melanie and Alex, all took time off from their jobs to attend the adoption event in order to solidify their Noonan family history.
Bob Noonan is a Founding Board Member and Board Chair for Let It Be Us and Wendy Noonan is a tireless child advocate. Together they epitomize the family opportunities that abound in adoption from foster care.
One of the most favorite projects that Bob has taken on with his two youngest boys has been to build an “awesome tree house” in the back yard. Wendy made sure to adorn the cabin with twinkle lights. “They love our house and they love their tree house,” says Wendy. “Sometimes we all go out there and just hang out and talk.”
Wendy tells us that Johnathan came to their family at 6 months for supposedly a short time, and he was to never leave. One year later his brother Kevin arrived immediately after his birth. She’s so happy they have each other to grow up with because they’re siblings and they are also great playmates. They are almost one year apart in age, to the day.
“When it comes to being a mother to both biological and adopted children,” Wendy says, “I feel like there’s no difference. We’ve grown to love them just like our biological children. It’s simple, we’re a family.”
“On our adoption day I felt overwhelmed with happiness, selfishly for me, but also for them. They now have a clear path to opportunities and to a future. We waited 6-1/2 years to finally adopt them and to finally have closure was unbelievable.”
Bob reports that “having both biological and adopted children has been a true blessing to us. Somehow we heard the whisper of God (we must have been listening) and we have had the wonderful opportunity of being exposed to the foster care system and we now realize the great need for so many innocent kids out there.”
Bob believes that there isn’t a difference between raising and loving a child through biology versus adoption. “It’s not really any different. A kid is a kid. They all need unconditional love and guidance and, frankly, they give the love right back in spades. We recommend that more people try it!”
Let It Be Us is an Illinois 501(c)(3) committed to inspiring the adoption and education of children within Illinois foster care. Learn more about Let It Be us programs, events and initiatives at LetItBeUs.org.
