We adopted Levi through the Second Chance program almost 3 years ago.  When we first heard about Levi, he is 4 years old.  We had previously adopted another child through Second Chance, so we basically knew what to expect this time around.  Levi had been in his previous adoptive family for almost 2 years.  He was not making progress with them and it was necessary for him to receive and new family.  We had a few conference calls with his first adoptive family and Cyndi, and it was a great way for us to understand the situation with Levi and to know what to expect when he joined our family.  Once we committed to adopting him, we had a bit of a wait with the interstate compact.  This was not as smooth as our previous Second Chance adoption had been, but finally we were able to get the necessary documents finished and I traveled to Georgia to pick Levi up.  We met him and his respite mom at a hotel in Atlanta.  He was very shy at first and seemed nervous about being left with me, so we took our time visiting and waiting until Levi felt comfortable with me.  I really appreciated his respite mom taking time out of her busy life to make sure the transition went well for Levi.  On the flight home, I was able to get a glimpse into Levi’s personality a little better and could see that his transition might be difficult.  We did have a bit of a rocky start, and off and on that first year and a half was peppered with difficult times, but we persevered.  We were able to finalize Levi’s adoption 6 months after he joined our family.  We happened to move to a new state that exact same month.  It was a lot of change for Levi in a very short period, but he did OK overall.  He’s a resilient kid.  He has made so much progress in the last 1.5 years!  It is actually impressive.  He is a happy boy, who loves to help out anyone at anytime.   We have been able to help him control his anger and frustration with more positive behaviors and his tantrums are extremely rare these days.  He is incredibly bright and does very well in math.  We are so thankful to Cyndi Peck and the  Secondary Adoption Program. Without them we wouldn’t have Levi!