DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
More than 20 children seeking adoption or who have found homes had their pictures taken yesterday by volunteer photographers as part of an event held by Heart Gallery Hawaii at the Children's Discovery Center in Kakaako. Kiersten, an orphan, acted as her inquisitive self as her group waited to take pictures with photographer Teri Lathrop. The photos taken yesterday will be exhibited at Pearl Ridge Shopping Center on National Adoptive Day Nov. 18 to publicize the mission of the Heart Gallery, which is to find families for orphans. CLICK FOR LARGE
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Portraits capture spirit of kids seeking homes
An isle family benefits from a group's photographic mission
Orphans Dana and Nathan would have been the foster children no one wanted -- had it not been for Heart Gallery Hawaii.
Donna and Robert Darcy, who hadn't seen their grandchildren Dana and Nathan for two years, wouldn't have been reunited with them -- without Heart Gallery Hawaii.
The Darcys are closing out paperwork to adopt the brothers, ages 12 and 6.
The national nonprofit Heart Gallery's mission is to find families for orphans. The organization held its first statewide event yesterday at the Children's Discovery Center to inspire people to come forward as adoptive parents.
More than 20 children seeking adoption or who have found homes were linked with a dozen volunteer professional photographers. The photographers' work eventually will be used to publicize the Heart Gallery's mission.
Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona, who spoke in support of the event, said the photographs will be the selling point because their portraits will capture "loving, young people with a lot of talent and vitality" who are looking for homes.
Adoptions have markedly increased adoption rates in some of the states where Heart Gallery photos have been exhibited or featured in the media, according to David Louis, who founded the Hawaii branch about a year ago.
When Donna Darcy learned that Louis, a fellow church member, had started Heart Gallery, "I asked him to help me find my grandchildren."
She had been communicating with her eldest grandson, Dana, by letter for about a year, but had been mistakenly told by his social worker not to tell him she was interested in adopting him or to try to locate him. But Louis got through the red tape with the state Department of Human Services and got permission for the adoption, she said.
"I couldn't believe it," she said. "I was so overwhelmed with joy and thanking God."
Robert Darcy said: "We're a good team. ... We want to try and give them a better life than they've had."
Dana, whose last name cannot be used, said he could not believe it when he first heard his grandparents were planning to adopt him and Nathan. Only a month ago they were living in a foster home with two other foster kids. He felt hurt that "no one in the (extended) family was interested in taking care of us, which was a lie." He was "saddest" when he found out his parents, who have drug problems, had "lost their rights to us."
Choking back tears, Donna Darcy said she felt Dana had lost hope when he failed to write for a two-month period. He felt "his own family doesn't want me. And I couldn't write and tell them I wanted to adopt them."
His brother, who was born with a few disabilities, would have been especially hard to place in a family because "it takes a world of patience working with this boy. They would try to keep them together, but eventually they would be broken up," she said. "He's always going to need us in his life."