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Sean, 9, has been separated from his birth family for five years. He turns 10 next week, and more than anything else, he wants to be adopted.
Matthew Harris/The Daily Item /


Published November 07, 2009 11:24 pm - Looking through small, round glasses, Sean spins coasters on the top of a wooden table with the tips of his index fingers.

Adoption: He wants a mom and dad
Sean has no prospects, but hopes for ‘forever’ family

By Gina Morton
The Daily Item

MILTON

Looking through small, round glasses, Sean spins coasters on the top of a wooden table with the tips of his index fingers.

"I want parents who will play with me," the 9-year-old says, pausing to look at a woman in her mid-20s with his brown eyes. "Younger parents, like you."

Sean is one of the more than 2,500 children and teenagers in Pennsylvania who are without a permanent home, and identified in the state adoption system by an ID number.

The various faces "” boys and girls, babies and teenagers, some smiling, some stoic "” scroll across the page of the adoption Web site, listing their names, photos and brief descriptions, differentiating each by an eight-digit adoption code number.

Many of the children involved are in a foster homes, in which the parents are attempting to fully adopt and gain parental rights. According to the state Department of Public Welfare, 2,714 children are looking to be adopted.

Seventy-three percent, or 1,980 of them, have identified an adoptive resource.

The remaining 27 percent, or 734 of them"” have not.

Sean "” known in the Pennsylvania Adoption Exchange as C2211005 "” is among the 27 percent. He has no connection with his birth family or extended family and is searching to find, what he calls, a "forever family."

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On the exterior, Sean seems unfazed that he has no relationship with his birth family. He plays and laughs. Looking at photos of himself, he erupts in giggles, hunching over in a belly laugh, and jokes with those around him.

Wearing a blue- and black-striped shirt and chewing a lollipop, Sean recalls his constant moving from foster home to foster home to foster home.

"I've lived all over the place," he said, counting seven. He's been at his current foster home for about six months.

Sean entered foster care when he was 4, and has remained with Family Care for Children and Youth Inc. ever since. Rebecca Rhodes, an adoption-permanency case manager at Family Care in Milton, has worked with Sean for the past year.

When he finds his forever family, Sean says he wants parents who will play with him, and who have a basement with a TV and video games. The possibility of living in a country setting or small town where he can have a yard would be ideal, he says. Sean also is hoping for young siblings who he can play with and teach things to, and pet dogs and cats to play with.

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