Saturday, June 23, 2007

1,1717 displaced children in Tennessee

Everyone needs a dad but none more than special kids in foster care
Lewis, Dwight. The Tennessean, June 17, 2007.


"There is a man in my house/He's so big and strong/He goes to work each day and stays all day long/Comes home at night, looking tired and beat … I think I'll color him Father … I think I'll color him love.'' O.C. Smith, as reprinted in My Soul Looks Back, 'Less I Forget: A Collection Of Quotations By People of Color (HarperPerennial).

It was 12 years ago now, and twins Micheala, a girl, and Adrian, a boy, were just 2 years old. They were really just babies, special-needs babies living in a lovely foster care home. Not a permanent home but a foster-care home.

A short time later though, a middle-aged East Tennessee man named Samuel Vaughn Thomas Jr., and his wife, Rosa, adopted Micheala and Adrian and gave them a permanent home, like so many children in foster care would love to have.

"Why did you all adopt Micheala and Adrian?'' I asked Vaughn over the telephone recently.

"It was simple,'' he replied, "there are not enough fathers in our homes. There was a need, a void, and that void needed to be filled.

"Adopting children in foster care is great, but adopting special needs children can even be more fulfilling.

"They're loving kids. They're wonderful, and they've brought a lot of joy into our lives. If I had to do it over again, I would do it.

"There are so many things our children need, especially our boys. They need a father figure in their lives.''

In addition to Micheala and Adrian, Vaughn, who happens to be my cousin, and Rosa have another adopted son, Ryan, who turns 18 next month and earlier this spring graduated from high school with honors.

A few days before talking to Vaughn, who was in the early stages of muscular dystrophy when he and his wife adopted Micheala and Adrian, I received an e-mail saying, "With Father's Day coming up, it's easy to think about what to get Dad, but have you thought about how many children don't have fathers?

"In fact, in Tennessee, 1,717 children do not have permanent, loving homes or parents to call their own.''

The e-mail went on to say that:

• More than 114,000 foster children in the U.S. are waiting to be adopted.

• The average age of a foster child is nearly 9.


• The average time a child spends in foster care is five years, and that can be a lifetime for a child.

In recognition of this special weekend for dads and their families, Wendy's is introducing, "Father's Day Frosty Weekend.'' Today, participating Wendy's restaurants across the nation will donate a minimum of 50 cents from every Frosty product sold to the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption.

The goal is to raise $1 million for the foundation and its program, Wendy's Wonderful Kids (WWK). The program hopes to fill a "critical gap by funding and supporting full-time adoption recruiters at local agencies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and two Canadian provinces to match prospective parents with waiting foster-care children."

My cousin Vaughn will tell you that adopting a child or children is a neat thing to do, and he has two grown biological daughters.

And can you imagine where Micheala and Adrian might be today if Vaughn and Rosa had not come along? Sure, they were living in a lovely foster home 12 years ago, but that might have soon run out.

Today, they're in a permanent home and are as happy and cheerful as can be. That's why it's important for all of us not to forget those children still in foster homes. They, too, would love to be in a permanent home with someone they can color Father and love as well.

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