By Rosemary Miller, Exec. Director
Catholic Social Services of Montana

Imagine being a child and not knowing what family or community in which you will grow to adulthood. There are children who wait patiently in Montana for a family, some for years. The uncertainty of their future leaves children with many emotional issues. They have suffered abuse and neglect and are unable to return to their family of origin.

These are the children who wait for an adoptive family in Montana and throughout the United States. They want to be adopted and need to establish permanency in their lives.

Adopting an older child or teenager is not talked about much in the media. It can be quite challenging to parent a child who has experienced many hardships in life. Yet these are the children who so desperately need to have a family they can call their own. They need a family to come home to at Thanksgiving and Christmas when they are young adults and parents themselves. The support of a family can never be underestimated.

Each month in The Montana Catholic, we will feature a child who is in need of an adoptive home.

The Wendy’s Wonderful Kids project is a program of Catholic Social Services of Montana in western Montana. It is a signature program of the Dave Thomas Foundation whereby a social worker is able to concentrate on one child and finding a permanent home for that child.

Watch this newspaper for information about these children; this month, you can learn more about Levi on the next page. For more information about this program or any of the children, please call the Wendy’s Wonderful Kids social worker, Leslie Martin, at (406) 442-4130.


Published in The Montana Catholic, Vol. 24, No. 6, June 20, 2008.