THE RIVARD

Meet the Rivard family: Sam, Meghan, Anna, 9, Micah, 7, and their canine companion, Neno, of Westfield, IN. Sam is an IT Project Manager for the City of Westfield; Meghan is an instructional assistant for Westfield Washington Schools, where Anna is in third grade, and Micah attends full-time ABA therapy.

They enjoy family dinners, board game nights, church life, Great Wolf Lodge (their family fave) and exploring local nature preserves and playgrounds. As it is for many special needs families, especially active families like the Rivards, Meghan says they’ve had to endure their share of looks and comments over the years — some because Micah has nonverbal autism, some because Anna is Taiwanese and Micah is Chinese; theirs is a story of adoption.

“We are a multi-racial family, as well as a special needs family, so we do get looks and sometimes comments when we are all out together,” said Meghan. “I’ve learned many people aren’t educated about autism or adoption, so we try to use those opportunities as teaching opportunities if possible.

“I wish I would have fully realized what I do now,” she reflects. “That it’s OK for your family not to fit in the ‘typical’ box.”

Adoption

Ever since Meghan can remember, she has wanted adoption to be a part of her story, and the deal was sealed when she met her husband, Sam.

“When we were dating, Sam and I both often spoke about adoption and how much we both admired it,” said Meghan. “We adopted our daughter through domestic adoption in 2013 and Micah through international adoption in 2018.”

Anna is Taiwanese and was born in the U.S.; the Rivards have an open adoption with Anna’s birth parents, with occasional visits and phone calls, whereas Micah’s adoption was very different. As it is in many international adoptions, Meghan explained, they were given very little information on Micah, and zero information on his biological family, only that he had spent his first three years