Kids & Family
A Child is Waiting: Friendly Heather Loves school, Chatting "Chilling"
Hundreds of Michigan children hope to be adopted by willing "forever families," especially teens close to aging out of foster care system.
by Honey Murray for MediaNews Group
“I call Heather my ‘little ray of sunshine,’” says her worker warmly. “She is always ecstatic to talk to her ‘besties’ -- and she greets everyone as a ‘bestie!’”
Sixteen-year-old Heather is described as a sweet, sassy and loving girl with many interests and a contagious smile.
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“She loves to socialize and chit-chat,” her worker shares. “She is quite funny and sometimes can even be sarcastic. She’s friendly, social, determined, and she knows what she likes and doesn’t like and can verbalize her needs and wants.”
Heather likes school and considers her teacher a best friend. She enjoys walking around the school playground, loves her music classes and especially likes ‘40’s music.
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Heather also likes swimming, bowling, yoga, jumping on trampolines, going for long car rides, watching movies like “Space Jam,” eating in restaurants (especially McDonald’s), relaxing on the weekends and doing crafts.
“She likes to make things out of paper and will create things like snakes and balloons…
“And she loves the color green. She wears green barrettes and green sweatpants and has many green stuffed animals – and she’s named all of them ‘Heather!’”
“Every time I see Heather,” says her worker, “she asks how the adoption process is going. She has a huge desire to be part of a family.
“Her growth in the last year has been amazing. She deserves a family and wants it so badly.”
Heather’s worker believes that Heather would do best with a two-parent family that can offer her safety and security.
“Her adoptive family would need to be able to provide structure and compassion and a lifelong commitment to her. They would also need to be advocates for the school and therapy services that are helping her so well.”
Heather loves animals and says that she would enjoy it if her forever family had a pet – as long as it’s a quiet one. And it would be great, of course, if they really like the color green.
For more information about adoption, fostering or mentoring, please contact Orchard’s Children’s Services at 855.694.7301.
