Sunday’s Child is a weekly column featuring a child currently in foster care awaiting adoption.
Daequan and Raya are affectionate siblings of African-American descent who are looking to be adopted together.
Daequan is described as a bright child who enjoys playing video games and being active in his afterschool program. He is very interested in sports and has strong athletic capabilities. One of his dreams is to be a football player when he gets older. In school, Daequan does well and is able to make friends easily. Daequan’s foster family reports he is a great big brother to his sister, Raya. They also say he is helpful and a pleasure to be around.
Raya loves to sing, dance, and play with her dolls. She is also helpful in her foster home without any prompting. Raya gets along well with her peers and the adults in her life. She does well in school and enjoys learning.
Ready for adoption, Daequan and Raya should be placed together with or without other children in the home. Their social worker is open to looking at all family constellations, as long as the family can provide stability and structure for Daequan and Raya throughout their lives. Their social worker feels that they will do best with a family in Massachusetts. A family also needs to be open to letter and picture correspondence with Daequan and Raya’s biological mother.
Who can adopt?
Can you provide the guidance, love, and stability that a child needs? If you’re at least 18 years old, have a stable source of income, and room in your heart, you may be a perfect match to adopt a waiting child.
Adoptive parents can be single, married, or partnered; experienced or not; renters or homeowners; LGBTQ singles and couples. The process to adopt a child from foster care requires training, interviews, and home visits to determine if adoption is right for you, and if so, to help connect you with a child or sibling group that your family will be a good match for.
To learn more about adoption from foster care, call the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE) at 617-964-6273 or visit www.mareinc.org. The sooner you call, the sooner a waiting child will have “a permanent place to call home.’’
