Heart Gallery & Adoption Process
EL PASO (KVIA) -- If you go to the Heart Gallery of El Paso website at www.heartgalleryelpaso.org you can see a handful of amazing kids who hope to find a forever home.
Whether it's through nonprofits like Heart Gallery or not, Sylvia Pitcher, who works with Child Protective Services, breaks down what's required to adopt a kid.
"It's one to have the interest in becoming a foster parent," said Pitcher, "It's going through the orientation meeting, kind of getting an overview of everything, and from there were have a training class, we have background checks, we do a home check."
After that initial home check, Pitcher says they then conduct a home study project.
"So we ask you in-depth questions about your life and why you want to be doing this," said Pitcher.
Familes are usually asked to become foster partents first.
"If you're a foster parent and you're fostering a set of siblings or a child, and that child becomes legally free, then you're able to be that first choice in case you do want to adopt," said Pitcher
To start the process as a foster parent, you have to be 21-years-old and financially stable.
Heart Gallery El Paso is also made possible as an initiative of the Paso Del Norte Community Foundation, to promote adopting here in the borderland.
ABC-7 anchor Paul Cicala has done a number of segments on kids looking to be adopted, as KVIA continues to partner with the Heart Gallery, and will continue with these profiles in the upcoming weeks. Look out for the stories on ABC-7.
