“Lisa and I have been together for 20 years, trying IVF and it just didn’t work, so we looked at each other and said ‘how about we try for adoption?’ Adoption was seven to ten years of waiting and you can’t do it here in Australia anyway. There are a lot of kids out there that haven’t got families so we made the decision to get into the foster system. I was adopted and it was a little thing like that for me to give back as well.
My adopted parents were beautiful and they brought me up really well. Probably only people that have been adopted understand the rejection that you carry in your life, that you don’t realise; it rules your life, your relationships, with your partner, with friends, a whole range of things. You take everything as if you’re not good enough. You weren’t good enough at birth because in my case your biological mother gave you up so you think you must’ve been bad. That was tough for me right up until I was about 35.
I look back now and think ‘thank god, I had a good upbringing’ and yes, I carry some baggage but yeah, we all do.
Both our kids have been with us now for seven years. That day back then was a pretty big highlight in my life. They were really excited to live with us. To see these two little souls who had been through a hard time. Just before that they got asked the question, ‘what do you look forward to of living with Pete and Lisa?’ and they said ‘we just want to run into the bedroom on Christmas morning and jump on the bed and wake you up.’ That was the one thing that was gonna be their joy when they come live with us. It’s just little things like that.
They are siblings and now 14 and 13 years old, both have Aboriginal background.
There are a lot of Aboriginal children out there that are finding it hard to find homes and that is what we wanted to do. We just wanted to open our hearts and our homes, do our best and help them through their little bits and pieces. So, now they are with us for the rest of their lives which is just amazing.”