Adoption is not limited to a ripe season. Adoption needs stretch into all seasons.
Officials at the Adoption Exchange know. The Aurora-based group has connected agencies with families seeking to adopt a child for the past 22 years. It also recruits families to adopt, providing them with training and follow-up support.
It is a bridge to a child finding an enduring, tender embrace.
Since its inception, the Adoption Exchange has helped 4,443 children find families and homes. Its $3.7 million budget includes $1.2 million in donations.
But more is needed. The agency has applied for funding from the Post-News Season to Share campaign.
More families are needed, too. In Colorado, 875 children are in foster care awaiting adoption. More than half are in Denver County. Children range from infancy to age 17 in most instances. Eight is the average age of those adopted.
Dixie Davis, executive director of the agency, said she could receive a call tomorrow that a baby has been born with barely a brain stem, a baby that may never walk or talk – and that baby can be placed in a home in two phone calls.
Placing teenagers is tougher.
“These teenagers know they have lost their baby fat and aren’t ‘cute’ anymore,” Davis said. “But they would love to have someone say, ‘You can’t go out tonight, it’s family night,’ or a mom or dad sign their report cards. Usually when they turn 18, they are emancipated from the system.”
David Eaton, 32, is an exception. Since age 11, he has been a part of the Adoption Exchange.
Maybe you have seen him on the “Wednesday’s Child” local television series or heard him speak at an Adoption Exchange banquet or seen him working with disabled youths in Westminster. He lives there. He has lived alone for the past 10 years.
He has cerebral palsy.
Neither that nor his wheelchair nor waiting his lifetime to find permanent adoption has quenched his zest for life and for helping others. It has not diminished his desire to gain a family and a meaningful name.
“When kids don’t have any family, their identities aren’t very good,” Eaton said. “A kid wanting to be adopted goes through a lot of emotions. As he gets older, they are easier to hide. But they are still there.”
Eaton knows little about his biological parents, a mom who was 13 when he was born in Colorado Springs; a father who was 21. At 3 months old, he was placed with an adoptive mother. She decided she could not take care of him, and he was placed back in the system. Another family was found, but again he was returned when his new parents divorced. He says he was 6 or 7 then.
The Adoption Exchange was founded in 1983.
Eaton joined them in 1984.
Eaton used to hate his last name. One of his adoptive families gave it to him. He has learned to live with it, have fun with it. “Eat on,” he said, laughing, adding that he loves a good meal like the next guy.
He agrees that it is never too late to be adopted.
For him, he said, the chances are “harder” now.
“I’m a caring person,” Eaton said. “I like helping people. Everything I do tries to help people. The Adoption Exchange has helped me to know what it is like to be treated with love and to love back.
“If I was adopted, I would not have to live with them, but it will still mean a lot to me. I could actually call someone mother or have a sister. I would belong to somebody. That is what a last name does. It means you belong to someone. It brings pride.”
Staff writer Thomas George can be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.