Description
Sarah is a 9-year-old girl who was adopted from Guinea, Africa. She was four years old when she was adopted. She 4’7”, 75 lbs. Sarah likes being with people, is curious, likes attention, has an assertive personality, is smart, mostly positive, and happy. She loves animals.
Sarah has been diagnosed with anxiety, depression, suicide ideation/thoughts, unspecified eating disorder, traits of disrupted attachment, minor hearing loss in both ears (genetically passed down) – a diagnosis which is so minor that she does not need hearing aid devices.
Sarah likes to be helpful to her mom and dad. She is giving and loves to make gifts for people’s birthdays. She is generous. She is good at pretend play and has a great imagination. Sarah does like to learn and is smart.
Sarah can be very affectionate and likes hugs but swings quickly into being moody when corrected. She is not shy; she is usually the opposite where she doesn’t have appropriate ‘stranger danger’ skills. She can easily walk into a room and insert herself. She’s aggressive or dominant with peers but gets along better with younger children. She has trouble with physical touch boundaries, even with adults. Sarah has shown unusual behaviors regarding physical touch from the day she joined her family.
Outside of the home, Sarah is great at putting on a face for people. Sarah would do well in a family that has older children or no children. If there are older children in the home, it would be a difficult pairing if the older children had the same background as Sarah because she has sexually acted out. The family prefers to place her in a spiritual home because that is something that is important to Sarah. They prefer a heterosexual couple but is open to a single parent where she can receive the attention and care she needs. It takes a lot of time to manage her behavior. She will need to continue with therapy and counseling.
We know that adopting a child over the age of 9 could be difficult, but we feel confident that there are parents of all types out there who love kids and would love to add them to their families.
Sarah’s current family has come to understand, after many conversations with professionals, that she might be able to attach better to another family because she would not view them as having taken her from her birthplace.
Adoption is a legal process so there will be costs associated with them. There are grants out there to help fund your adoption (please request that information.) This adoption may qualify for the IRS Adoption Tax Credit.
Contact us if you have any questions or want to know more about Sarah. Our email is kidteenadoptions@wiaa.org