As always, our work in foster care and adoptions is filled with much cause to celebrate as well as pain and grief. Quite often these different threads are woven into the one fabric of a life. In the United States 129,000 children are awaiting adoption and TLC has done its part in finding adoptive homes for 33 children so far this year. We are also very excited to report that four of those 33 adopted children were teens! Teenage adoptions are still rare and we at TLC believe every child deserves a permanent, loving family no matter what their age. Last year 26,517 children turned 18 and left the foster care system without a family to support them through that incredibly difficult transition to adult independence. It takes courage to adopt a teenager out of foster care and it takes courage for a teenager who has led a difficult life to want to be adopted.
When Matt and Jennifer Stevens followed their hearts into the Fost-Adopt Program at TLC in 2008, they met the outstretched hand of Jordan, then 15, who bravely opened her heart to what had in the past led to great pain: adoption. What she got instead of pain is a family with loving parents, adoring little sisters, and an extended family. With the support of TLC social workers and staff to help the family negotiate the complicated road to adoption, they became a legal and forever family on October 9, 2009!
Jennifer, the proud mother, said, “I’m not wealthy and I don’t have a bunch of money togive to help people, and I don’t have a lot of skills, but I can take care of kids, so that’s what I do.”
