A Safety ‘Net for ‘Forever Families’

Adrian and Natasha were smiling faces on a page when Janna Larson found them at the public library. It happened when she was browsing The Treasure Book, a loose-leaf binder of black-and-white photographs advertising Montana children in foster care and seeking permanent homes.

That was a year ago.

Today, 5-year-old Adrian and his sister, 3-year-old Natasha, call Janna and Patrick Larson “Mommy” and “Daddy.” The newly made family in this city, Montana’s largest with about 87,000 residents, was expected to become official with the children’s formal adoption in December.

It’s an old problem: children in dire need of adoption. Whether orphaned or cut loose from abusive or neglectful parents by the courts, these youngsters often get stuck in foster care limbo.

The latest solution, and one gaining popularity, uses the children to make a pitch for their own adoptions.

Now these kids are popping up on the Internet, appearing in television spots and in widely distributed volumes like The Treasure Book.

It’s a revolutionary switch from the days when adoption was handled quietly, behind closed doors.

Prospective parents today can page through a book--in Montana, The Treasure Book is available at libraries, state agencies and Wendy’s restaurants, whose founder, David Thomas, was adopted--or look for children by way of a few keystrokes and clicks on a computer.

They’ll learn about children like 12-year-old Daniel, a Montana boy in residential treatment. He is “working hard on his issues and behaviors in the hope of being adopted by a family,” according to the Treasure Book entry. He likes football, science, camping and fishing--and he was abused and neglected.

A visit to the Web site operated by the National Adoption Center in Philadelphia can be heartbreaking--and persuasive. There, the faces of hundreds of children beam with hope in color photographs beside descriptions of their personalities, problems and dreams of a “forever family.”

“It’s a radical departure from that old, private, inner-circle kind of approach,” said David Scott, who runs the Families for Kids office in Topeka, Kan. Families for Kids, which is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation of Battle Creek, Mich., aggressively spreads the word about foster children available for adoption in 11 states.

Not everyone is comfortable with the new approach.

“There has been criticism that the children are being marketed,” said Sheila Howe of Montana’s Child and Family Services Division. “We don’t hear it from the general public. Usually it’s from people who have some connection with kids--therapists, teachers. They know the child is in pain now, and they figure we’re bringing out more pain.”

Howe, who helps find homes for children, once shared those misgivings.

“When I first heard about this approach, I thought, ‘Yuck!’ But that was before I saw the hurt that kids have when they grow up and never have a family.”

Like Howe, other foster care and adoption experts say they have little choice; they need results.

At any given time, about 50,000 children in foster care are legally free for adoption, according to the National Adoption Center. The 25-year-old private, nonprofit organization works with adoption agencies, children and their families to expand opportunities nationwide for children with special needs and those who are minorities.

The center says another 50,000 children typically are in the pipeline, their cases in court, their parents likely to lose parental rights.

Rarely infants, most of these youngsters are anywhere from toddler age to 18.

Unlike the healthy babies many people wish to adopt, they may come with physical or medical problems. Some are mildly retarded or struggle with emotional difficulties. Most typically, their young lives show the scars of too many broken, unreliable bonds.

Child advocates believe that with the help of smart advertising, these kids can find the loving families they badly need and deserve.

Janna and Patrick Larson of Billings, Mont., are unable to bear children. They wanted to adopt. Their experience working with disabled kids at a summer camp made them a good fit for little Natasha, who has a physical condition that makes walking difficult. Her brother, Adrian, has needed medication for irritability.

After the Larsons expressed interest in the siblings, the couple went through the usual screening. Social workers described worst-case scenarios before placing the children, and let the couple know they could back out at certain stages in the process.

Once Natasha and Adrian were placed, the adoption agency regularly monitored the fledgling family.

“Up until adoption day, they want to make sure that you want it to be a forever thing,” said Janna Larson, 24 and a full-time homemaker. But she and 26-year-old Patrick, a deliveryman, say they’re confident and happy with their decision.

Officials say it’s too soon to know how many adoptions result from advertising foster children, but they’re certain it works, if slowly.

In the two years since the National Adoption Center put up the Web site it calls Faces of Adoption, 32 children have found homes. They were among 700 children featured.

Still, advocates continue to be hopeful.

“When public awareness about the children is increased, the number of adoptions goes up,” said Gloria Hochman, National Adoption Center spokeswoman. “There are still lots of people in this country who think only babies are adopted.”

This strategy has raised concerns that information about the children could fall into the wrong hands, or find its way into the schoolyard or hometown where the children are known.

Officials insist privacy is safeguarded: children are identified only by first names; their communities are not disclosed; the child’s circumstances are described in only general terms.

And some states, such as Montana, bar use of the children’s photographs on their Internet sites.

Another worry is the children’s morale. Television spots may falsely raise a child’s hopes, said Anne Furman, New York’s director of family placement services in Albany. Even so, New York foster children have appeared on television.

This summer, Montana TV viewers saw foster-care children interviewed on camera.

Before taping, the youngsters met with a social worker.

“I would say, ‘We know there’s a family out there that would like a child much like you, and might be interested in being your forever mom or dad,’ ” said Howe of Montana’s Family Services. “ ‘We would like to do a couple of things to help make the connection.’ ”

In deciding whether to televise a child, she said, “you have to weigh the longing and desire against . . . the risk of no placement.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Families for Kids

Families for Kids actively spreads the word about foster children available for adoption. The program funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation operates at 11 locations around the country:

Akron, Ohio

Boston

Columbia, S.C.

Grand Rapids, Mich.

Helena, Mont.

Jackson, Miss.

New York City

Raleigh, N.C.

Seattle

Topeka, Kan.

Tucson, Ariz.

Associated Press

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The Faces of Adoption Web site of the National Adoption Center is https://nac.adopt.org/. Information about Families for Kids is on the W.K. Kellogg Foundation Web site: https://www.wkkf.org