Hingham Mothers Organize Group for Adopted Children and Their Families

A recently formed group called Our Hearts Match-Families Through Adoption of Hingham will unite parents and their adopted elementary students, allowing the adults to share their unique but similar experiences and the children to bond with others in their position.

The group will hold its first event, a social, on Sunday, May 5, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at the Recreation Center behind Hingham Town Hall. The parents will have a chance to talk while the children meet and play. OHM, the creation of Hingham mothers Laura Donnelly and Sharon Harrington, is an attempt to bring the town's large, but quiet adoptive family population together.

"You don't have to whisper about it," Donnelly said. "You don't have to go on a European vacation and come home with a baby."

Donnelly and Harrington each have an adoptive child in second grade at Plymouth River Elementary School. They started discussing the group earlier this year after Donnelly talked to the mother of a grown adopted child about how a group would have been helpful. 

"First we had to define it for the two of us and then communicate it to other people," Donnelly said.

Like many families, both Donnelly and Harrington explored adoption because of infertility. They're stories have parallels and unique aspects.

Donnelly has two children, James, 8, and Emma, 5, who were both adopted from Korea. By adopting from overseas, the visa process for each child took about a year and a half. Emma and James both moved to Hingham at seven months old.

Harrington's eight-year-old daughter Bridgette was adopted at two years old after being in a local foster home for about a year. 
Harrington said people have commented that she did something special for her daughter by adopting her as a toddler. The mother of one, disagrees. "She's the gift," Harrington said. "She made us a family."

"I never knew I could love someone so much," Harrington said.

With children in the same class, Harrington and Donnelly have been able to share their perspectives on different issues. One such happening was an ice breaker assignment that asked the second graders to share where their name origins. 

James was not interested in sharing how he had a Korean name. Bridgette has a different name on her birth certificate, a fact Harrington said her daughter didn't want to explain to her classmates. The OHM group will become a sounding board for parents to discuss these unique situations.

Once the decision was made to organize the Our Hearts Match social on May 5, Donnelly said they've started to spread the word. They found a lot of interested families, estimating about 50 children and parents have expressed interest in attending the event.

Eventually, Donnelly and Harrington would like to initiate a mentor program between the elementary children and high school students who were adopted. They've also considered bringing in adults, who were adopted, to share their experiences with the group.

Anyone interested in learning more about Our Hearts Match-Families Through Adoption of Hingham can contact Laura Donnelly at 781-875-1573 or lauradonnellyma@gmail.com and Sharon Harrington at 781-740-1258 or sharrington525@comcast.net. Emails can also be sent to ourheartsmatchhingham@gmail.com