Boy adopted through Wednesday's Child now helping foster children find comfort and hope
BOSTON – Adopting can be a long and taxing process for foster children and their new families. One young boy who was adopted thanks to Wednesday's Child is now helping others in the system find comfort and hope.
Darius Noonan now has a strong and loving family with the Noonans. But he also understands the ups and downs of foster care and wanted to do something about it.
As they were going through the adoption process, Kevin and Maria Noonan found it tough.
"It was a hard thing. It's hard because you have to get matched. So you get your heart set on getting matched with a certain child and for some reason you don't get matched. It's long, hard and emotional," Maria said.
That rollercoaster ride gained speed while the two were on vacation.
"Believe it or not, we were in Aruba when we got the call. We wanted to come right home and they said 'No, finish your vacation,'" Kevin said. "We came home and there was a little boy in the Malden DCF and it was Darius."
There were still steps to overcome before Darius could make the Noonans his forever family.
"At first, I don't think that I really believed it," Darius said. "It was kind of scary and I had moved around so much and I was moving again and I didn't know if I was going to stay at that one or move again."
The Noonans and Darius were a match.
"But it was ultimately up to him. When we met him, he had to be the one to say OK, and we were like, 'Is he going to pick us or is he not going to pick us?'" Maria recalled.
"And he was taking a chance on us because he had already been in a bunch of foster homes," Kevin added.
Darius found his forever home with the Noonans when he was three years old, but he didn't come alone. He brought his plush comfort dog named Trouble with him.
"He helped me get through a lot with being here and everything. He always calms me down. I feel he is magical," Darius said.
And now, he's sharing that magic.
"And one day he pulled me and my wife Maria aside and said 'I'd like to do this for other kids because it was a great comfort for me back in foster care and coming here gave me a lot of comfort,'" Kevin said.
So Darius partnered with "Kids Helping Kids" and at last check, he's delivered more than 400 Trouble dogs to others.
"It just makes me happy seeing all the kids getting Trouble. I know Trouble is going to help them out. It just makes me happy to see it," Darius said.
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.
For more information you can contact MARE: 617-964-MARE (6273) or visit www.mareinc.org.