Older children come pre‐programmed with opinions and fears . . . but I can tell you the day and time when each of our boys called me ‘Mum’ for the first time. And I can tell you how and when, to the second, each of them told us they loved us.
Annette, mother of two brothers adopted at ages 7 and 11
Adoption is an important part of our work here in Halton.
Our first role in this process is to recruit and provide continuing support and training to all of our different types of care providers. Our adoption workers assess people who want to adopt a child from children’s aid. They provide pre‐ and post‐adoption support to children, their parents and adoptive parents.
It takes very special expertise to find placements for some children. They may be infants with high needs, or children who are in care because of abuse or neglect. Older children are sometimes difficult to match with their “forever families.” As Annette says, “it’s a courtship; they get to know you as adults. We were the boys’ third set of parents!” Nevertheless, the Halton Children’s Aid Society’s adoption service has a strong record of placing children with high support needs in permanent, loving families, like Annette’s family.
Thanks to parents like Annette and her husband Bill, her boys and others like them are growing up without fear in stable, loving families, finishing school and starting independent lives.
Adoption Disclosure
The Halton CAS adoption services also provide disclosure information to adopted people over 18 years of age and to their birth parents.
