By Gini Davis

Each of their young faces, gazing out from a gallery of beautiful professional photographs, tells a story.

Shades and variations of the same sad story, of children who have seen and experienced things no child should have to endure.

Resiliently hopeful stories too, of children with bright eyes, smiles and unique personalities, who love horses, dogs or lizards, reading books, climbing trees, playing with dolls, playing soccer, stomping in mud puddles and the color pink.

Extraordinary, ordinary children waiting to belong and be loved, their hopes, dreams and talents waiting to be nurtured by their "Forever Family."

On display at Ray's Food Place, Siuslaw Bank, SOFCU Community Credit Union, the Creswell Library, the Chamber of Commerce and other Creswell locations through November, these portraits are part of the Lane County Heart Gallery.

One of 90 branches of the grassroots Heart Gallery project begun six years ago in New Mexico, the Lane County Heart Gallery, which receives no state funding, has since November 2006 featured 70 to 80 foster children awaiting permanent adoption.

"This is our passion," said Marsha Hastings of Creswell, a Heart Gallery volunteer who spearheaded the gallery's Creswell visit. "It only takes one person to make a difference in the lives of these kids."

These are children suspended in Oregon's Department of Human Services (DHS) foster care system, some of the more than 1,000 Lane County children, more than 10,000 Oregon children and more than 500,000 children nationwide living in foster care.

On average, they've been "in the system" about three years; for many, it's been longer.

Often they've been returned to and removed from their parents' custody multiple times and shuffled through several different foster homes per year, each disruption leaving emotional scars.

Now free for adoption because their biological parents' rights have been legally terminated, about 100 Lane County children, including Heart Gallery kids, await new, loving families to call their own.

Most are considered "special needs," or "hard to place" by DHS because they are over age six (30 percent of foster children are teenagers), are part of a sibling group, are part of a minority ethnic group and/or face specific physical, mental or emotional challenges.

Enter Christy Obie-Barrett. One year ago, Obie-Barrett founded A Family for Every Child, an adoption-recruitment nonprofit organization, and sponsored Lane County Heart Gallery's debut, featuring 33 children.

A mother of 12, including nine adopted children, Obie-Barrett committed to finding each of them a home.

Today 30 of those photos bear the caption, "I Found My Forever Family."

Some of those children and their adoptive parents were among 500 people celebrating Lane County Heart Gallery's one-year anniversary at the Eugene Hilton on Nov. 4, where some spoke movingly about becoming a family.

"We're fighting the old stereotypes [about foster children's adoptability]," Obie-Barrett said during a Nov. 7 presentation to Creswell Kiwanis. "We want people to see the child; that dispels a lot of that. It's just amazing what love and care and one-on-one can do for these kids."

With each DHS caseworker currently supervising about 33 children at a time, Obie-Barrett sees A Family For Every Child's role as "helping to bring more people to the party" as potential adoptive and/or foster parents.

All must still go through the DHS qualification process, she noted.

"People are standing in line for babies but not for these kids," who have already endured abuse or neglect, years in foster care and the court process terminating their parents' rights, Obie-Barrett said.

"We get them after all of that, at the end of the line. These kids, if we don't find them a permanent home or a biological family member able to take them in will leave foster care at 18 with no family," Obie-Barrett added. "That's what motivates me."

Indeed, encouraging adoption of teens, locating children's extended family members children and finding adult mentors to help teens aging out of foster care up to age 21, with hurdles such as college applications are major goals for Obie-Barrett's organization.

"We've been taught there are no homes for these kids, that the aim is ‘independent living,'" Obie-Barrett said of foster teens. "But nobody lives ‘independently'; we all live interdependently."

Life can be incredibly lonely and difficult not only for children but for young adults without permanent, loving family bonds.

"About 70 percent of kids who leave foster care with no family end up back in the system in some way, whether they're on welfare, in prison or homeless," Obie-Barrett said. "It makes a huge difference if they have even one committed person in their lives."

Hastings made that commitment after seeing a Heart Gallery display in Valley River Center about six months ago.

"I walked in and saw Austin's picture on the wall," she said, identifying a boy she felt especially drawn to. "I saw all these photographs of children, saw Heart Gallery brochures and realized all these kids needed homes."

Hastings also realized she could be of service as a Heart Gallery volunteer, "and I could bring the Heart Gallery to Creswell; people in Creswell adopt kids."

She approached the Creswell Chamber of Commerce. "One thing led to another, and here we are," she said.

Gazing at the portraits of waiting children, some of whom may find their own "Forever Family" among the Creswell shoppers, library and bank patrons, Chamber visitors and others who will look into their eyes this month thanks to her efforts, Hastings said she's encouraged by the embraces these children have already received.

"I want to express my thanks to the community for the enthusiastic, open-arms reception the Heart Gallery's been given, because it's how we get kids permanent homes," Hastings said. "Together we're making a difference in the lives of these kids and in society, in so many ways."

To make a difference as a foster or adoptive parent, mentor, Heart Gallery or Family Finder volunteer, to make a donation or for more information, contact Obie-Barrett at 683-5769, 954-9626 or CBOBIE@AOL.com, or visit www.afamilyforeverychild.org.