Description
Meet Lucas!
*Lucas turns 5 at the end of February (2018). He was recently adopted by a family with several other young children. Lucas needs to be the only young child in his family due to the severity of his institutionalized behaviors, so his family has sought the help of Second Chance to find a better fitting family. Lucas is delayed due to spending his life in a special-needs orphanage. He was described as ‘mute’ before his adoption, and was treated as such in his orphanage. He did not engage in any language learning during his first 4.5 years. He does not appear to have any psychological delays other than severe neglect, but further testing is underway to determine the extent of his abilities. In his adoptive family, he has already made huge strides toward language development and shows the ability to follow directions as well as learning American Sign Language and beginning verbal sounds.
Children like Lucas are best viewed as a very young toddler, like age 1-2, since he has not had interaction or attention typical to a young child. Emotionally and developmentally, he is like a two-year old or slightly younger. Many adoptive parents have seen this in children adopted from severely neglectful orphanages and start with expectations, interactions and activities designed for a 1-2 year old.
Lucas is going to need intense, focused one-on-one interaction by his new parents in order to form a secure attachment. He needs constant one-on-one attention and his current family is unable to give him the amount he needs to overcome his delays and challenges. He is unable to engage or participate in any activity that involves the two other children.
Lucas is an active child and enjoys things like jumping on the trampoline, riding a scooter, riding his balance bike, and taking walks.
Lucas favorite foods are fruits like apples, oranges, pears and watermelon.
Lucas enjoys listening to music and trying to dance along. He also enjoys taking a bath and playing with toys in the bathtub. When he enjoys an activity, he has a very big smile and laugh to let you know he is having fun.
Second Chance agrees with his adoptive parents that Lucas should have no other young children in his new home (no other children under age 9), and a stay at home parent who can give him a nice long period of attachment without interruption of travel or outside job. If your family meets these guidelines, and you’d like to know more about Lucas and our process of being preapproved for his adoption, please write us back at secondchanceinfo@wiaa.org and ask for Lucas’ “full profile”.
This is a private adoption, so a state or foster home study might not work. A state authorized private domestic or international home study is generally required. Due to state laws, we are not able to place this child in CT, MA, OR or DE. If you have never had a homestudy before, we cannot help you adopt this child. But, we would love to share with you the process of starting a homestudy so you could be approved for a child in the near future. Please write to us and ask us how to get started!
Adoption is a legal process so there are costs involved. This adoption qualifies for the IRS Adoption Tax Credits.
Contact us at secondchanceinfo@wiaa.org
*To protect the privacy of our waiting children and their families, Second Chance does not share real names for our waiting children on the Internet. It is our policy to only share a snippet of a waiting child’s details as well as the type of adoptive family we are looking for. If you fit the POSTED REQUIREMENTS, are home study ready, and interested in adding this child to your family, please write to us for an honest, in-depth profile on the child including medical, educational, and behavioral information and learn the full story of why this child needs a secondary adoption. Our program social worker and program director have worked together with the child’s family to carefully set the requirements for the new family. These requirements are not negotiable, so please honor the needs of this child by not asking us to bend them for you.
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