Angela Poirier
Wilmington, North Carolina
Angela Poirier, a children's services social worker with the New Hanover County Department of Social Services in North Carolina, is our January Caseworker of the Month. She diligently applied herself to make an interstate adoption successful for a sibling group of three.
The adoptive family of Mississippi nominated Poirier for the award and said, "Angela is absolutely exceptional and a wonderful role model for all social workers. She moved as fast as she could make the bureaucracy move by always being three steps ahead of the ball."
Poirier was assigned to the children's case in January 2007 after a coworker went on maternity leave. The children were ages 9, 10, and 12 at the time.
"In this case, the kids had some pretty specific needs," Poirier said. "This was my first interstate adoption and I was a bit concerned. You just never really know people and I didn't think it was in the children's best interest to introduce them to a lot of people."
The family who nominated Poirier was searching nationwide for children to adopt and used AdoptUsKids to make their inquiry. Poirier received several home studies and said their story stood out.
"They are just really special people. They had a great balance of knowing that they needed to love these kids, but they also needed other things in order for it to be successful.
"People often get consumed by wanting a child so much they don't look at the whole picture. They didn't do that. They wanted to hear from the children's teachers, therapists, and everyone they could to get the best understanding of what it would mean to care for these children," Poirier said.
The family made a trip to North Carolina the week after Thanksgiving 2007 to meet the children for the first time. "It was just instant that everyone fell in love with each other," they said.
Notification of the match came shortly after their trip, and Poirier already had the paper work ready to go.
"There's so much paper work that needs to be done. If you're not organized things will fall through the cracks," Poirier said about the key to making an interstate adoption successful.
By the time Christmas rolled around, the children weren't doing well and started showing signs of doubting the adoption was really going to happen. Poirier called the family and they made a special trip to North Carolina despite not having any word on when the paper work would be finalized.
"We kept getting the bureaucratic run around, but held out hope for a Christmas miracle the papers would get signed while we were visiting the kids," the family said.
The miracle came true, and on their last day in North Carolina all the paper work got processed. Poirier was even home sick that week, but continued making calls to do what she could to help move the process along.
"You got to do what you got to do," Poirier said. "I have worked in human services since 1993 and it's rare to see something like this happen. It was one of those goose bumps moments because it was like, 'Oh my gosh! Did that really just happen?'"
The adoption of the three children was finalized on July 16, 2008. The family now hopes to open a home for adopting children who are close to aging out of the system.
"It was the smoothest experience because of Angela. Not only was her dedication to the children just incredible, but her ability to get things done within the system should be studied and held up as an example for all to follow," the family said.
The nomination letter
We would like to nominate Angela Poirier to the position of extraordinary social worker. In all of our many contacts with social workers the last several years, Angela stands out as one of the best.
She was always prompt, courteous, and kept the deadlines she set. It is an awesome undertaking to merge three young people into a new family and move them several states away. Angela and her team had our children prepared and ready for the move.
She was also a great resource for us as we moved through all of the legal issues related to adoption. Our children arrived home with us on January 9, 2008. By July, Angela had all the paperwork processed and the adoption finalized.
We anticipate that more children will eventually come to our home. Angela will certainly be the standard for other workers to beat.
For more information about Poirier and the need for foster and adoptive parents, download our January 2010 Caseworker of the Month Press Release (54 KB PDF).
Find out more about adoption and foster care advocacy and our previously featured caseworkers of the month.