Hugh Adami: Foster parents found for two Mexican children whose adoptive mother is ill

OTTAWA — A former missionary nurse believes she has found the right couple to parent her two adopted children once she dies or can no longer care for them.

Diana Bowman, who turns 73 this month, appealed publicly in a Citizen story April 3 in the hope of finding legal guardians for Daniel, 13, and Claudia, 11. Bowman suffers from a number of serious illnesses and was concerned that she did not have anyone ready to care for them if she became incapacitated or died.

Her appeal generated many calls and emails to the newspaper from couples who wanted to see if they could help, including a couple from Calgary and another from Toronto. But Bowman wanted someone from the Orléans area where they live so that Daniel and Claudia would face the least disruption. She wanted them to be near friends and continue going to the same schools.

Fortunately, a couple who doesn’t live far from her home came forward and offered to try to become legal guardians if Daniel and Claudia were happy with such an arrangement. The couple has three young children of their own and has been looking to adopt or become foster parents through the Children’s Aid Society, says Bowman. The CAS is aware the two families have made contact.

And so far, so good, says Bowman. The children spent a night at the family’s home last week after Bowman badly injured her right foot and leg in a fall and spent a night at the Montfort Hospital. The couple has also been around to visit the children, says Bowman, and both seem very enthused in caring for them. The wife was planning to visit again Monday to help with dinner. She is a stay-at-home mom; her husband is a physician.

Bowman goes into hospital from time to time because of problems with her transplanted heart, and the couple will be ready to take care of the children.

“(Daniel and Claudia) like it,” says Bowman. “This couple can take them over to their place.

“They behave well. I told them to say please and thank you, and to scrub their teeth before bedtime.”

Ottawa lawyer Rebecca Stulberg, who operates as a private-adoption licensee in Ottawa, contacted Bowman last week to see if she needed any help in finding guardians for the children. But at that point, the Orléans couple was already involved.

The British-born Bowman delivered and adopted Daniel and Claudia, both of Aztec heritage, while she worked in Mexico as a missionary nurse. Severe cardiac problems forced her to quit her vocation about 10 years ago, and the family settled in Toronto, where Bowman had previously lived. She underwent a heart transplant in Ottawa in 2004 and the family moved here shortly after.

Though her recent injury has added to the toll on her health, Bowman seems buoyed that someone is preparing to take over care for her children when she no longer can. “I did what I set out to do.”

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