Sunday’s Child is a weekly column featuring a child currently in foster care awaiting adoption.
Charissa is an engaging Caucasian/African-American 12-year-old girl who enjoys performing and being in the spotlight. She likes to sing and is a part of her church choir, where she is a beloved and active member.
Charissa has an individualized education plan to assist in school. However, she does extremely well with one-on-one attention. Considering the challenges she has faced, she is a resilient child who would thrive with consistent parenting, love, and guidance. She will need time to build trust with adults, but she is a loving child.
Charissa would do best in a two-parent home where her needs can be met with nurturing and support. She should be the youngest child in the home, and would particularly like a Spanish-speaking home with no pets. Charissa will need a family that is able to help her maintain a relationship with her younger brother.
What is a home study?
Part of the process to adopt a child from foster care is the home-study review. After you complete the Massachusetts Approach to Partnerships in Parenting training course, your social worker will conduct in-home interviews that will help gather information and get to know you and your family. Your social worker will schedule visits with you to discuss your strengths and challenges as a family, your parenting style, and the type of child you would like to adopt. From these meetings, the social worker will write a narrative, also called a home study, about your family.
Once the training is completed and the interviewing is over, the decision can be made to approve you as a licensed preadoptive parent. The home-study document is then shared with other social workers to help make an appropriate, mutually selected match between your family and a waiting child.
To learn more about Charissa, and about adoption from foster care, call the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange at 617-54- ADOPT (617-542- 3678) or visit www.mareinc.org.
The sooner you call, the sooner a waiting child will have a permanent place to call home.
