A year ago, a 10-year-old boy named Jessy appeared in this column. Available for adoption, Jessy was a shy, yet winsome youth who constantly played with a toy canoe as he answered a reporter’s questions about his need for a new family. Today that boat rests on his bureau in his new home.

Jessy now is the son of Donna and David and will spend his first Christmas with them in his new home in Bradley.

The couple asked that their last name not be used for publication, though they have gladly given it to their new son, an only child. Now 11, Jessy has settled into the fifth grade at the Viola Rand School. He also has settled into life at the family home, happily surrounded most of the time by various pets including two kittens and a dog that recently had puppies. More importantly, he has two parents who clearly adore him.

“This will be the best Christmas ever,” said David, 39, who supervises custodians at the University of Maine.

Donna, 45, is a ward clerk at the Bangor Mental Health Institute. She recalled how Jessy’s picture stood out for her in a collection sent to their home from Care Development Inc. in Bangor. The agency specializes in adoption and pre- and post-adoption services.

“We wanted [a child] aged 6 to 8 and he was 10 at the time,” Donna recalled. “It didn’t much matter if it was a girl or a boy. Something about him just caught our eye and we decided to meet him,” Donna recalled recently.

Anyone who knows Jessy, even a little, could have guessed the positive outcome. A quiet, yet appealing child, he possesses a dry sense of humor. He has reddish-brown hair and keen brown eyes that often twinkle when he thinks of something funny. Soon, Jessy was visiting Donna and David every weekend and being brought back to his Washington County foster home during the week when he attended school.

He moved in permanently with his new family on March 31.

The adoption was finalized two days before Thanksgiving in a probate courtroom in Machias.

It was “kind of nerve-wracking but not as bad as people think,” Donna said.

Jessy apparently has settled in to his new routine well. His teachers call him a cooperative child and a good student. He has a younger biological sister and often is able to see her and her adoptive family.

An outdoor enthusiast who enjoys canoeing, fishing and four-wheeling, Jessy’s interests fit in with those of his new parents who have a camper and a seasonal camp site on a central Maine lake.

“He’s great,” Donna said.

Turning 12 in January, Jessy “is a normal child and he tests the waters, but all in all I wouldn’t change it for the world. He’s part of our world,” Donna said.

Adoption Note:

Since the Maine-ly Children Column began in November 1999 it has published stories of 25 children available for adoption. Of that number, 14 either have been adopted or have been selected by a family and are in various stages of the adoption process. These children also have been promoted on television spots and on an adoption Web site sponsored by the Department of Human Services – www.adopt.org/me.