LilMtnCbn
05-17-2004, 06:03 AM
http://www.news8austin.com/content/living/forever_families/?ArID=106957&Se
cID=428
Joseph is scared of aging out before adoption
5/15/2004 5:00 AM
By: Amy Bowlin
Turning 18 is an exciting milestone for a teenager. It means you're independent
-- a legal adult. But for children in foster care, turning 18 means they were
never adopted.
"I want to be a singer-actor, a marine biologist and a barber. And I want to be
a photographer, too," he said.
Joseph is 15. He's been in foster care for more than eight years. He said this
News 8 Austin segment was his commercial.
"He brought a video camera because he wanted to film you filming his
commercial. That's actually what he thought it was. His commercial to find a
mom and a dad," Tracy Eilers of Adoption Coalition said.
Joseph is a hard worker with an adult-like sense of responsibility.
"I do my chores everyday because I get $10 a week. Right now my chores are to
keep the hallway swept and clean and dusted every week," he said.
He is soft-spoken and good-natured.
"Oh, hey, I'm trying out for mascot next year," he said.
But his caseworker said Joseph's hope of finding a family is starting to fade.
"When I see him every month he talks about how he wants to be adopted. He says,
'What can I do to be adopted?' He's beginning to lose confidence in being
adopted, thinking he's going to be in the system until he ages out of it," case
worker Earnest Trotter said.
"Aging out" is what happens when a foster child turns 18 and is no longer up
for adoption.
"If he is not adopted soon, it could potentially mean he never has a mom or a
dad. So, we have three years to make sure this child has a stable environment
and a potential for a future," Eilers said.
WATCH THE VIDEO
A good teen needs a good home
Joseph has aspirations to sing and act and could use a support system to
realize his dreams.
For Joseph, a forever family would mean stability.
"[I want] somewhere to go. Someone there for me when I need them to be," he
said.
And after eight years of going house to house, it would mean having someone to
care about him for the rest of his life.
Nearly 40 percent of foster children who never get adopted end up homeless.
Adoption advocates say it's because they don't have the resources and support a
family provides.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
cID=428
Joseph is scared of aging out before adoption
5/15/2004 5:00 AM
By: Amy Bowlin
Turning 18 is an exciting milestone for a teenager. It means you're independent
-- a legal adult. But for children in foster care, turning 18 means they were
never adopted.
"I want to be a singer-actor, a marine biologist and a barber. And I want to be
a photographer, too," he said.
Joseph is 15. He's been in foster care for more than eight years. He said this
News 8 Austin segment was his commercial.
"He brought a video camera because he wanted to film you filming his
commercial. That's actually what he thought it was. His commercial to find a
mom and a dad," Tracy Eilers of Adoption Coalition said.
Joseph is a hard worker with an adult-like sense of responsibility.
"I do my chores everyday because I get $10 a week. Right now my chores are to
keep the hallway swept and clean and dusted every week," he said.
He is soft-spoken and good-natured.
"Oh, hey, I'm trying out for mascot next year," he said.
But his caseworker said Joseph's hope of finding a family is starting to fade.
"When I see him every month he talks about how he wants to be adopted. He says,
'What can I do to be adopted?' He's beginning to lose confidence in being
adopted, thinking he's going to be in the system until he ages out of it," case
worker Earnest Trotter said.
"Aging out" is what happens when a foster child turns 18 and is no longer up
for adoption.
"If he is not adopted soon, it could potentially mean he never has a mom or a
dad. So, we have three years to make sure this child has a stable environment
and a potential for a future," Eilers said.
WATCH THE VIDEO
A good teen needs a good home
Joseph has aspirations to sing and act and could use a support system to
realize his dreams.
For Joseph, a forever family would mean stability.
"[I want] somewhere to go. Someone there for me when I need them to be," he
said.
And after eight years of going house to house, it would mean having someone to
care about him for the rest of his life.
Nearly 40 percent of foster children who never get adopted end up homeless.
Adoption advocates say it's because they don't have the resources and support a
family provides.
-------------------------
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail . . . but, a true friend will
be sitting next to you saying, "Damn . . . that was fun!"
-----Unknown
