Helping to build families

Lindsay Sandham

When most people think of adoptions, unwanted newborns and young

toddlers are usually what comes to mind.

That’s what Costa Mesa’s Margaret Cusack thought, until she

started working for the Orange County Social Services Adoptions

program.

Cusack specializes in “hard to adopt” children, which generally

means older kids who have been removed from their families after

being abused or neglected. Most of them have been in and out of

foster homes for a good portion of their lives and suffer from

behavioral or emotional problems.

“They’re often in group-home care,” she said. “They don’t live

with families; they live in residential treatment centers or

group-home facilities.”

After graduating from college with her bachelor’s degree, Cusack

was working in retail and was still unsure what she wanted to do with

the rest of her life. A friend worked in a group home and told her

they were short-staffed.

“I ended up going to work there, and I loved it,” she said. “So I

went back to school and got my master’s degree [in social work] and

came to the county to work.... I was assigned to adoptions. I was

really disappointed because I wanted the older kids. But I came to

adoptions and now I have older kids in group homes, but I’m able to

do adoption work with them, which is really great.”

There is a significant difference between adoption and foster care

-- children who are adopted have a family for life and are not

emancipated at age 18, as in foster care.

“These children don’t have parents, and parents are forever,”

Cusack said. Adoption “means they have a mother and a father when

they turn 19, or at their wedding ... they have a family.”

For her work, Cusack was among three social workers honored this

month by the Board of Supervisors.

“We have over 900 social workers here and Margaret was selected

out of that group to represent Children and Family Services and to go

forth and be recognized by the board,” said Debbie Kroner,

spokeswoman for the Orange County Social Services Agency. “I think

that’s a good testament to her work and what she brings to children.”

Because older children are considered hard to adopt, Cusack

frequently places children in out-of-state adoptive homes, which she

finds through a variety of nationwide adoption agencies.

“The oldest boy I ever placed was 17, and that was really cool,”

she said. “The family was waiting for him and they had a baby shower

for him. It was the coolest thing because he had waited so long for

an adoptive home.”

Many people don’t realize that ongoing financial assistance from

the state is available to families who adopt, until the child turns

18. Also, a common misconception is that gay couples and single

parents cannot adopt, but they actually can through social services,

Cusack said.

Although the work can be stressful, Cusack said she loves what she

does and can’t imagine working on the other side.

“When it’s good, it’s good, and when it’s bad, it’s really bad,”

she said. “We feel every child is adoptable, if we can find the right

family. What’s nice about this is I get to see closure.”