Shawn is a 14-year-old boy with red hair and a contagious smile.

He is helpful and easily engaged in activities and tasks. He interacts well with adults and caregivers. He enjoys many activities, such as camping, fishing, swimming and playing games and sports.

Shawn has a great sense of humor and is socially engaging. He loves animals and is sensitive and caring to those around him.

Shawn is highly motivated and wants to do well. He values hard work. He spent his free time in the summer collecting and returning bottles and cans to earn extra money.

Shawn enjoys working with his hands and learns well from hands-on activities. He likes working in the garage and completing home improvement projects. Shawn takes a great deal of pride in his accomplishments and doing a job well.

Shawn is an eighth-grader. He enjoys schools and is well-liked by the school staff. He receives assistance in the resource room for many of his classes because he has some difficulty with reading and information processing. He has made great gains by reading books while listening to them on tape.

He is below grade level, as his biggest struggles are mastering receptive and expressive language skills. He receives speech and language therapy twice a week at school. He does have the desire to do well and works hard to complete his work, even when frustrated in understanding the content and goals of the tasks set forth.

Shawn wants to be adopted and be part of a family. He will require a family that can support him in working through his grief and loss issues. He will require a family that can help him attain insights into his behavior as it is occurring. He does well with consistency and nurturing.

An adoption subsidy is available for the most appropriate family. Shawn is one of the 175 children currently in the Maine Department of Health and Human Services’ care who are seeking an adoptive family.

Based in Gardiner, A Family for ME is a nonprofit program that works in collaboration with DHHS to find foster and adoptive families for Maine children in care.

For information about Shawn or other children available for adoption, contact A Family for ME toll free at (877) 505-0545 or visit www.AFamilyForMe.org and see the Heart Gallery of photographs of some of the many children awaiting a “forever family.”