When Amanda McGoldrick and her husband married, like many young couples, they dreamed of children and began to prepare for a family. But their reality included a miscarriage and a fertility disorder.
“After four years of infertility treatments, I (asked God) ‘Why would you give me a desire to be a mother and not let me do this?'”
McGoldrick of Merrillville was a speaker sharing her adoption experience with a roomful of mothers at “MOPS” Mothers of Preschoolers program at Faith Church in Dyer recently.
The women were gathered for their monthly meeting and the program featured the Heart Gallery, a traveling photo exhibit featuring children awaiting adoption through the Indiana foster system. Large portraits of teen boys and girls smiling brightly, shyly, hopefully for the camera sat on easels along the borders of the room.
The McGoldricks knew they wanted to adopt babies, and ultimately they chose transracial adoption through Lake County Department of Child Services. Today they are the parents of three young sons.
Joel, 6, plays football and swims; Caden, 5, is very artistic, and Carter, 3, recently started preschool, McGoldrick said.
Not all children who are given up for adoption are as quickly adopted as those who completed the McGoldrick family. Many remain in foster care for years waiting to be chosen by a family for adoption.
There are about 100 to 125 children available through foster adoption according to Sandra Caesar, Indiana Department of Child Services adoption manager.
“Most of them are between the ages of 11 and 17 and one-third of those children are part of a sibling group. Those the most difficult children to place. People feel more capable of parenting a baby or toddler,” Caesar said.
According to Caesar, these children are considered hard to place because they are older, special needs children, minorities or members of a sibling group. The gallery, created by Indiana DCS in 2007, can be viewed online at www.adoptachild.in.gov
The concept of the Heart Gallery was created specifically for adoption of foster children in New Mexico, said Amanda Lopez, president of Transform Consulting Group. The consulting firm contracts with Indiana Department of Child Services.
In 2001, Diane Granito, a foster and adoptive parent recruiter for the New Mexico Children, Youth & Family Services Department, and Cathy Maier, a photographer and adoptive mother conceived a plan to have photographers take professional portraits of older children and sibling groups available for adoption. Since then, all 50 states have a Heart Gallery.
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Lopez said she has a deep appreciation for the foster adoption program. Her parents gave a home to 160 foster children over a period of 40 years starting in the early 1970s.
“In Indiana we are in a state of crisis because of drugs and abuse. In the last year the number of foster children increased by 40 percent. More than 10,000 children have been removed from homes,” said Lopez.
“We need people who are willing to accept the challenge of an older child. Most of us — as adults — would say family is still important to us. Kids of 16 and 17 need that also and to be able to call upon family for support for college and everything they will be facing as adults. They are going to grow up and be our neighbors,” said Caesar.
Nancy Coltun Webster is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
To learn more:
To view the Heart Gallery online: www.adoptachild.in.gov
To Adopt a child: Call 1-888-25-ADOPT
To Host a Heart Gallery: Send an email to [email protected]
Facebook.com/IndianaHeartGallery
Twitter.com/INHeartGallery