Vancouver family opens arms, loving hearts to adopt three siblings
By Patty Hastings, Columbian
Social Services, Demographics, Faith
Published: May 14, 2017, 6:04am
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The Granning family poses for a photo at their home in Vancouver.
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Kimberly Granning considers herself a fun, loving mom, but also someone’s who’s on the strict side, a rule follower.
“We’ve got to be inside the box,” she said.
That was clear Tuesday afternoon as Granning tried to wrangle her two youngest boys, Drake, 2, and Tray, 4, inside orange plastic cones outlining where they could ride bicycles on the street in front of their Vancouver home.
“Can you maybe go around the cone?” she said as Tray gleefully smashed through one with his tricycle.
The 47-year-old, who has returned to mothering as an adoptive parent, reflects a shift to older parents in Clark County and across the country. On a recent afternoon, she took a break from her job in escrow to play in the sun with her children and show Lakiyah, 7, how to shift gears on the new bike she got for her birthday earlier this month. Granning loves watching her daughter play.
“Every time I can see her just being a little girl makes me proud, because she spent too many years as a little girl being the parent,” she said.
Lakiyah and her brothers were fostered and later adopted by Kimberly and her husband, Eric Granning. Lakiyah and Tray were the couple’s first placements as foster parents, and then Drake came later after the family that was fostering him relocated.
“At that point, we realized this is going to be long-term, and the kids all really need to be together,” Kimberly Granning said.
They’ve been together for about three years. Granning is already mother to a pair of adult sons from a previous marriage, so she’s raising children all over again with more years and experience under her belt.
“Kids just want to be loved,” she said. “What they need to grow is to be loved. There are so many here. There are just so many here that need that love. They just need somebody to step up and give it to them.”
The boys are particularly connected, and Drake gets upset when his mom drops off Tray at Educational Opportunities for Children & Families each morning. Tray has some developmental challenges, so although he’s 4, he’s about on the same level as his 2-year-old brother. That means they feed off one another and help one another progress.
Or, when they’re full of energy, it can mean outdoing the other in somersaults on the living room floor.
Tray goes to Doernbecher Children’s Hospital weekly for services and attends a special education preschool.
“He’s come so far and he’s worked so hard,” Granning said. “When he sits at the counter and just says something so clear and it has four or five words in it, it’s inspiring to see how hard he’s worked to be able to say that.”
Kimberly and Eric will spend part of Mother’s Day weekend at the Mt. Hood Ski Patrol banquet, celebrating a successful winter season. The couple met volunteering with the ski patrol, which rescues and bandages up people who get hurt on the mountain.
“She’s just an all-around amazing woman from her heart to her soul,” Eric Granning said. “She’s caring, loving. There’s nothing she can’t do.”
Both of them are outdoor emergency care technicians and supervise portions of the first aid room and first response on the mountain. They train new recruits, too.
PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center did not release birth information.
“It’s just so different up there. It’s outside of what you normally do,” Kimberly Granning said. She’s been skiing for 30 years.
Lakiyah, who’s picked up snowboarding, said she likes that her mom is part of ski patrol.
“She loves our family. That’s what I love about her,” said Lakiyah, adding that she likes to help her mom.
When Kimberly Granning isn’t skiing, she’s running. She has run marathons and 10 kilometer races, but half marathons are her favorite. When does she find the time to run between a full-time job, raising three kids and volunteering?
“This morning, it was 5 o’clock. On Sundays, I do long runs while they’re sleeping,” Kimberly Granning said. “It’s a give and take. You’ve got to be super organized.”
She’s training for next month’s Rock ‘n’ Roll half marathon in Seattle. And, in September, she’ll run the Air Force Half Marathon with her son Taylor, 23, who’s stationed at Wright-Patterson in Ohio. They did the Rock ‘n’ Roll in Arizona when Taylor was based there.
She’s looking forward to her 20-year-old son Jared, who’s in the Navy, heading home this week. It’s a Mother’s Day gift of sorts. Though, after his deployment in the Middle East and all of the sun there, he’s hoping to come home to rain. She sent him a recent picture of herself at Timberline Lodge amid all of the snow still there.
“I’m like, ‘No, we want no more rain,’ ” she said.
If the weather forecast is to be trusted, Kimberly Granning might get a brief dose of sunshine on Mother’s Day.
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