Indiana’s 2009 Mother of the Year, Terri Harless, 53, of Spencerville, was honored in ceremonies Thursday at the Allen County Courthouse.
In addition to four grown biological children, Harless has two adoptive children, has fostered 14 children and is in the process of adopting two more sibling boys.
“The children in Terri’s home are not ‘typical’ children. They are children with significant disabilities,” wrote Debbie Schmidt, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, in her letter of nomination for Mother of the Year. “Terri has the ability to love each child right where they are and give them as much family support as possible. She does this by respecting the biological family as she fosters her children and incorporates each child into her personal family.”
Harless is a champion for her own adoptive and foster children, ensuring they have their educational, social and emotional needs met, and also serves as an advocate and legal guardian for other children with special needs and their families.
Her children are involved in Boy Scouts and in church activities. Some serve as pages in the Statehouse, others as officers in a new organization that Harless helped found last year, called Change Makers.
The group, which has between 60 and 70 members, is led by young men and women with disabilities. They decide what projects they want to do and look for ways to be of service to others. Harless said, “It’s important they learn to give back to their community, that there’s something bigger than they are.”
Harless reminisced with elected local and state officials and a representative from U.S. Rep. Mark Souder’s office about the many shoes she wears as a mother of children with such varied needs.
A teenage boy waved his hands, a baby with Down syndrome crawled across the courtroom carpet and every so often an ill-timed laugh was heard from another youngster. Harless was not disturbed or embarrassed. She acknowledged each child as she spoke.
To her adopted son Dale, 19, who has autism and other disabilities, she said, “You, you, Dale, are what started all this.”
Dale responded with a toothy grin.
