Yesterday I attended the annual Shining Stars Luncheon for Foster Angels of Central Texas. Foster Angels is an amazing local nonprofit that supports foster youth. My workplace (CareerPlug) partners with them frequently, most notably on a $10,000 scholarship fund for foster youth continuing their education and the annual Toys for Teens holiday drive. This year we received the Outstanding Community & Philanthropic Partner award at the luncheon.
Before working at CareerPlug, I didn’t have much exposure or context for foster care and adoption. There are hundreds of thousands of children in foster care in the United States, over 100,000 of whom are eligible to be adopted. It’s not their fault that these kids are put in a situation with huge obstacles, including the lack of a stable home with financial and emotional support.
Foster youth are much less likely to go to college than average high school graduates. One report concluded that “only 2.5 percent of children who grow up in foster care graduate from a four-year college while fewer than 2 percent of youth formerly in foster care complete a bachelor’s degree before the age of 25, compared with 24 percent of the general population.”
“Every kid is one caring adult away from being a success story.”
Josh Shipp
As part of the scholarship CareerPlug began back in 2015, our company would read applications from teenagers in foster care. These teens wrote essays and their circumstances and dreams, recounting sometimes nightmarish pasts with an optimistic view of future education and success. It hurts your heart to read. These kids are fucking resilient. They deserve so much more than what the world is giving them.
I have been vocal in the past year or so about wanting my own children. Specifically, I want to adopt as a single parent. Even as my worldview has shifted about marriage and partnership, it seems that kids were never just another box to check off … it feels like a calling. I’m a few years off from this being realistic for me, but I’m exploring my options. There are many ways to adopt and adopting from birth through a private adoption is appealing (if not expensive). But I’m opening the door wider and wider to foster care and public adoption.
There are so many children who just need love. And I have love to give.
WIth Love,
Natalie