The Life of a Foster Child

Some of you may know a foster child, or even be related to one! Most kids are in foster care to get a second chance at living a happy life, but there are also kids who don’t get that chance.  Foster children can be moved from house to house. There are 397,122 children in foster care, and only 101,666 of them are eligible for adoption. The other 32% have to wait around another year in an adoption care. Those kids don’t know what it’s like to have a stable family. Luckily, my cousin Lane was fortunate enough and didn’t have to worry about not being in an unstable family. This is the story of Lane.

When Lane was born, my aunt and uncle were called up by the adoption organization to see if they were interested in adopting my cousin Lane. At this time, my aunt and uncle had been interested in adopting for a long time. Lane was being taken away from his parents because they were not stable enough to take care of him, and they didn’t want to even have a child in the first place. They were not prepared at all. My aunt and uncle went to the hospital, and they were very thankful that they got called to take this opportunity, but they were going to have to go through a long process in court.

My aunt and uncle had faced a tough time through the adoption process before they adopted Lane; they were taking care of a little boy named Austin. Austin was a blessing to our family. He fit right in. Austin was taken away from his parents because his parents were not safe to be around. When Austin came to the family he had to leave behind his older sister, and that was a little tough for him, but he still got to see her every now and then.  Austin was a part of our family for quite some time before we got the heartbreaking news that caused sadness for our whole family.

We had to say goodbye to Austin because he was going to go back to his dad. We were all very sad and didn’t know what to think of it. From the very beginning we didn’t think it was going to be a very good idea because of all of the things that his dad did before Austin got taken away from him. We couldn’t believe he had to go back to his dad! After he was taken away, our family gatherings would always be a little different. I remember sitting in the living room with everybody talking about all the good times we had with Austin. It brought everybody to tears. My other aunt and uncle have seen him only a few times since he went back to his dad.  I recently found out that Austin’s dad took Austin and his sister to Florida. Now I’m afraid that I will no longer get to see him. Seeing old pictures of him really brought back great memories.

As my aunt a uncle were going to court to try to adopt Lane, Lane’s real name was Zachary. My aunt and uncle hated that name, so they changed it to Lane. They had high hopes for this adoption because they realized that the parents could not take care of Lane and it wouldn’t have been a stable family. Lane’s dad never came forward because the mother never even knew the father of Lane! The mother never came out and said who the father was, and to this day we still do not know, but that didn’t matter to my aunt and uncle; they just wanted the rights to adopt Lane.

We were all waiting for the call from them to let us know if the adoption went through, and it did!  We were all so excited because we all grew so close to Lane the first time we saw him. Lane and I have had quite a bond. Whenever I walk in the door, he runs up to me, and he will give me the biggest hug. I am always the first one he will run up to. He is the cutest little boy, and  he will never fail to put a huge smile on my face.

Lane has grown so much the past 5 years as well as facing many challenges. As Lane had gotten older we have realized that he gets really paranoid around cops. He will cling on to you if he sees one.

Lane will say things like, “ Are they the good guys?” or “ Will they keep me safe?”

My aunt and uncle say that the reason he says all of that is because he thinks that they will take him away. As soon as I heard that we all thought it was unusual but at the same time we all felt bad for him. We never want him to feel that way. I know my cousin Lindsey gets asked rude questions all the time by her classmates, but she doesn’t care. She will stick up for Lane no matter what.

Besides that, Lane has the most energy you could possibly have, but that is what makes him so much fun to be around. Lane loves helping his big sister with all her animals and helping out on the farm. He sometimes thinks he’s a little bigger than what he really is. Whenever I see Lane I will see him wrestling or doing flips, and he loves to drive the fourwheeler around the farm.

There have been so many amazing memories with Lane that I will never forget.  Every year when we get together for a holiday, we take a moment to pray for all the things we are blessed to have. In the middle of the prayers Lane always gets brought up about how thankful we are to have him be a part in our life. We are so proud of how far he has come. There are some children who lose all hope when they reach their teens because most parents looks for younger kids when they want to adopt.

The reason for more younger kids being adopted is because older kids often aren’t as understanding and face difficult times growing up. I sometimes wonder how my aunt and uncle are going to tell my cousin that he is adopted, and I wonder how he will react. There are kids that get very upset once they find out and they leave their parents. We all hope that is not how my cousin will react because our family wouldn’t be the same without him. That is the story of Lane.