Wednesday's Child: Father of 4 children with special needs says 'look outside your comfort zone'
LANCASTER - Sometimes miracles happen during the adoption process. This is a story of many miracles. Peter Wyman adopted four children.
"I love it, I love it. I mean it's been 34 years. So I certainly love it," he told WBZ-TV.
It first started when Wyman got a job helping kids who had special needs.
"It tended to be children that were diagnosed with autism, who had no real family involvement and I would take them home for holidays and summer vacations and I just found that their entire persona changed," he said.
And it was then that Wyman decided to adopt. Jared was first. He is autistic and a rare chromosome abnormality called duplicate 15 inversion.
"Jared, was placed twice in disrupted adoptions. So, I was third in line, so I got that call when he was three years old," Wyman said.
Jared is now 34. He's survived surgeries and seizures and has the love of a father and family around him.
CJ is also on the autism spectrum but he is quite possibly the biggest adoption celebration the Department of Children and Families (DCF) has ever had. At 6 he was almost pulled from the Massachusetts Adoption Resource Exchange (MARE).
"I went out and the minute I met him I knew. I called the Department of Social Services and I said he's mine, I just know it. Any adoptive parent knows, when you lock eyes, it's a done deal," Wyman said.
CJ is now 33 and he was once selected for a moving art series called the faces of autism.
From there Wyman adopted Miguel and Jacob. Miguel is now 28 and Jacob is 19.
They are both on the spectrum and have down syndrome but nothing has stopped this family. They go on vacations and they all enjoy working out together at the Unified Health and Performance Gym in Lancaster.
Wyman said building trust with his kids was never an issue. They all have the quality to understand people.
"No matter what's been thrown at them, they innately know who's a decent person," he told WBZ.
Wyman's life is full of love. He said adopting these four has always put a smile on his face and, he stresses, this population of kids awaits to be adopted as well.
"I always ask people to sort of look outside their comfort zone. I know adoption has a million different journeys and a million different roads. Just take a look. It might be something that you never, ever anticipated doing and it might be the biggest joy of your life," he said.
For more information on adoption 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.
