Anglicare’s Special Needs Adoptions program is appealing for families willing to embrace twin boys who could face their third Christmas without a permanent family.
The two-year-old twin boys, Michael* and James*, were born with a disability that has hampered their development. For the past two years, staff at Anglicare and the boys’ foster carers have overseen intensive early intervention strategies for the two boys and have been encouraged by the results.
However, despite the promising results, suitable families have not come forward.
Jane West, Manager of Anglicare Adoptions is not surprised. While interest in children without special needs is very high, Ms West says interest drops significantly when a child has a disability.
"Although we can understand the hesitancy to undertake the emotional, physical and financial commitment of raising boys like Michael and James, these boys are achieving their developmental milestones," Ms West said.
"At the moment Michael's favourite tune is "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and he likes to design his own music with his instruments. James enjoys interacting with others and happily waves goodbye when asked. While they are only now learning to walk, these boys have mastered the art of speed crawling and can pull themselves up.
"They need families that will not only love them, but also have the capacity to cope with the demands of special needs parenting and a commitment to maximising the developmental opportunities for these boys," she said.
Anglicare says a lot of the difficulties in finding a family for Michael and James has come from a lack of understanding of their disability. The two boys were born with Partial Agenesis of the Corpus Callosum (ACC), an abnormality in the brain structure, which has impacted their development and vision.
The outlook for those with ACC is variable. The condition does not cause death in the majority of patients and many children with the disorder lead normal lives and have average intelligence. The intellectual disability associated with ACC is also not progressive.
"We are not asking for people to rescue these boys, but to see past their challenges and love them," explains Ms West.
"Families will need to understand that their lives will change and be willing to meet up with Anglicare's caseworker at least once a year for support and to discuss the child's progress."
Ms West says families who have expressed interest in adopting children with special needs in the past often had larger families with school-age children and valued family life highly.
One parent (generally the wife and mother) stayed at home to care for the children.
Ms West remarked that adoptive parents of children with special needs value a happy and well functioning family and often prize this more highly than the increased income and spending power generated by both parents doing paid work.
"Typically many of families who have adopted special needs children are not wealthy people but tend to have sound budgeting skills," Ms West explained.
"The children in the family are a focus and they are also seen by the caseworker so that their attitudes and feelings about an adopted sibling can be discussed and assessed.
"They play an active and vital role in the adopted child’s development and time and time again we see the child with special needs thrive in this environment in a way that surpasses medical expectation and opinion."
If you live up to 200km from Sydney and feel your family could embrace one of these boys and provide them with the assistance they need, please contact Anglicare Adoption Services on (02) 9890 6855.
*Not their real names.
