Families Take Many Forms

Downey Side began in 1967, when Father Paul Engel brought Brian Champoux, aged sixteen, into the home of Margaret Downey. With this act, Brian gained a permanent family and Margaret became a single mother, at the age of fifty-eight. We’ve always understood that love gives families their shape. Today, across America there is a tremendously urgent need for adoption. The stability of family life—regardless of race, ethnicity, marital status, sexual orientation or identity and any other labels attached—is the anchor children need.