Wednesday's Child: 15-year-old Andre

MARE - Andre, self-described as "awesome," is a lovely young man of African-American descent. He is very empathetic and loves animals. Andre plays basketball, makes music (especially rap), and enjoys showing off his skills. He also loves to play PlayStation 5 and to be outdoors. 

Andre likes to make others laugh. He is very good with younger children and enjoys being a leader. He does well in school with the support of an IEP. Andre is smart, enjoys reading, doing math, and enjoyed participating in school online and with a tutor. He does well when he receives a lot of positive reinforcement.

Andre would love nothing more than to have a loving and devoted two-parent family of any constellation with or without other children in the home. Interested families should have the knowledge about the IEP process and the educational background to assist Andre with his education.  

Interested families need to be firmly committed to providing appropriate ethnic and cultural role models and information with respect to his birth cultures which includes discussing racism and discrimination. 

It is also important that interested families are willing to allow him to maintain contact with his birth family, as Andre describes them as important to him and they are important to maintaining a connection to his culture. Currently, he has phone contact with his sister and birthparents and likely once a month in-person visits.

For more information you can contact MARE: 617-964-MARE (6273) or visit www.mareinc.org.

Since its inception in 1981, Wednesday's Child has been a collaboration of the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE), the Department of Children & Families and WBZ-TV/CBS Boston. Hosted by Jack Williams for 34 years, this weekly series has given a face and voice to the children who wait the longest for families. Wednesday's Child has helped find homes for hundreds of waiting children and continues to raise awareness about adoption from foster care.