Amber is typically the clown in the photograph, the one making funny faces.
“I stick out my tongue a lot when there’s a camera,” she says, her face contorting, eyes squinting as a smile spreads across her cheeks.
But Amber’s features fall flat when she talks about being a 16- year-old foster kid whom no one wants to adopt.
The reasons are too familiar and painful. She’s either too old or has been part of the “system” too long.
“You can’t judge us for what our parents did to us or because of how old we are,” Amber says. “A lot of us are actually pretty nice kids and deserve a home too.”
Amber’s ear-to-ear smile, among the faces of 50 Colorado children awaiting adoption, will be displayed across the state during the next year as part of a traveling exhibit. The Colorado Heart Gallery’s “Faces of Adoption” opens this weekend at the Walnut Foundry Event Center in Denver.
Most of the children featured in the exhibit are from the metro area. Their tale is often the same: Wonderful, lonely child needs a stable home and new family.
Sometimes, organizers say, a picture can tell that story more powerfully.
“They were chosen based on who among them had been registered for adoption the longest,” said Stacy Keller, a recruiter for the Adoption Exchange in Aurora and one of the gallery’s coordinators.
Children older than 12 typically have a much harder time finding a permanent home, officials say. And in Colorado, 8 percent of children awaiting adoption wait five years or more.
“A lot of people have a stereotype that teenagers are harder to parent,” Keller said.
The idea for the gallery was first hatched in Santa Fe, where such an exhibit had great success. Last winter, area counties began collaborating on an adoption exhibit of their own.
The purpose is twofold – to showcase kids while raising money for future exhibits.
More than two dozen local professional photographers donated their time and expertise. In photo after photo, the children find a way to smile, even after years of neglect and abuse.
“I didn’t really know what to expect when I volunteered, but the intent was to portray exactly who they really are,” said Cheryl Ungar, a Denver-based photographer who specializes in architecture and fashion models. “When I met Amber, I thought, ‘Oh, my God, this young woman is so confident and has so many goals, plus she wants to be a judge someday.”‘
Amber has been in and out of several foster homes since she was 11. She has waited almost two years to be adopted. She’s a bit of a tomboy and has a firm handshake. She saves her allowance to buy video games and accessorizes her outfits with sporty wristbands.
A freshman at Arvada High School, she’s a volleyball player and hopes her skills will get her college scholarships.
Amber is sad that she won’t be adopted along with her 11- year-old brother, Santiago, who already has his own prospects. She just hopes she finds a family before she’s an adult – a family she can come home to when she’s away at college, a family to join her on her first trip to Disneyland, a mother and father who one day would be grandparents to her children.
Lately, she has been excited about a black dress she found at a thrift store that she plans on wearing to her first gala – tonight’s opening of the exhibit.
“The dress has ruffles; it’s so cool,” she says gleefully. “This gallery is probably going to be one of my best memories.”
Staff writer Manny Gonzales can be reached at 303-820-1173 or mgonzales@denverpost.com.
