Vera

Description

Meet Vera!

Vera is six years old and was adopted internationally when she was five. She is doing online kindergarten through her local public school. Even though English is her second language, she is at the top of her class! Vera lives with her two adoptive moms and a 4-year-old sister. Since coming home, Vera has struggled with extreme jealousy of the younger girl. She feels resentful of any attention she receives. She seems very unhappy and unattached in her new family. Vera is the happiest when she receives on-on-one attention from one of her moms. They believe that she would flourish in a family as an only child or as the youngest by at least two years (she’d likely love to have some teenaged sisters). It’s probably she experienced or witnessed domestic violence from her birth father, so she is somewhat fearful of men. If she goes into a home with a father, he needs to be ok not being her primary caregiver or disciplinarian for some time until she gets comfortable around him. She would do great with a single mom.

Vera is very affectionate and eager to please. She is surprisingly brave when it comes to trying new things. She learned to ride a bike with no training wheels with almost no help. She loves climbing her family’s fruit trees and swimming in the pool. She is a good swimmer and doesn’t need the help of flotation devices.

Vera also enjoys calm activities like putting together Lego sets, coloring, or doing directed draws. She’s eager for online school each day and sits and pays attention well. She thrives with one-on-one attention and will happily help a parent fold laundry, pick up fruit, or do other tasks. She also enjoys sitting and looking at books together or coloring at a table side-by-side.

Vera loves music and likes having songs playing in the background. Her favorite colors are blue and purple. She likes wearing big-girl clothes and looking put together. Vera absolutely loves cheeseburgers, and while she’s not a picky eater, she could definitely live without Brussel sprouts!

Vera missed out on having the tender care of a parent when she was a baby. She would likely benefit from her new mom letting her experience some of the care a much younger child would have received while still acknowledging she is a “big girl.”

This is a private adoption, so a state or foster home study might not work. A private domestic homestudy is generally required. You will need to have a current, or easily-updated homestudy for this adoption. If your homestudy is current or you’re within 3 weeks of it being completed, feel free to inquire further. Our goal is to find a new, successful adoptive family for this child. We do not facilitate long-term respite care, nor do we allow for “trial periods” or visits between you and the child before the match is made and the child changes homes. By inquiring further, you are implying you have a desire to adopt, and not to offer other creative placement solutions.

Unless otherwise noted, we require that all of the children in our program be the youngest in their new family by at least two years. We ask that you honor this requirement and not ask us to bend the rules. These children need the chance to be the “baby” of the family and to receive much needed attention so they can attach and have a healthy start in their new home. When a sibling is close in age or younger than them, this will usually foster jealousy and competition which won’t lead to a successful placement. Thank you for understanding. If you are married, we also ask that you have been married for a minimum of 2.5 years before applying to adopt through our program.

Due to state laws, we are not able to place this child in CT, MA, NY, or DE. If you live in OR, you may need to travel to the child’s state to finalize this adoption or often finalization can be done virtually. If you live in WI, please let us know, as the adoption process may be longer and a bit more expensive than what is listed in our paperwork. NJ residents will need to check with their homestudy agency or an adoption attorney to see if their homestudy will work for this type of adoption. Some states are more work than others to get permission for the placement, and attorney fees are billed accordingly. If you live in AL, we will need a pre-placement meeting between the child’s parents and a social worker after you are matched to a child. This will be an additional cost to you.

If you have never had a home study before, we cannot help you adopt this child. However, we would love to share with you the process of starting a home study so you could be approved for a child in the near future. The easiest method is to Google “home study” and the name of your city. You can then call the agencies on that list and compare prices and timelines for getting a completed domestic homestudy. Once you’re within three weeks of having a completed homestudy, you can begin pursuing a match to one of our waiting children.

Grant Information: Many grant organizations have been very generous in giving grants to families adopting Second Chance kids. They like our program, and with international adoptions going down, domestic adoptions like ours receive a lot of attention. With this profile you are receiving, you also received a list of grant organizations.  These grants end up being a reimbursement for costs you have paid because you have to pay your adoption fees upfront. Keep track of all your receipts: agency fees, attorney fees, and travel fees, etc.. If you are approved (many, many families are), they will send the grant award to us, probably after you have the child home. We will ask you for your receipts, then we will send the funds to you.

If you are a U.S. citizen living overseas, we may be able to work with you depending on a few details. Please let us know your situation.

Adoption is a legal process so there will be costs associated. This adoption may qualify for the IRS Adoption Tax Credit.

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 (or can be soon!), 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.