My hero is an 18-year-old foster kid.  She is inspiring and incredible.  Here’s a little of her story:

She was born to an unwed mother.  As a child, she was in and out of foster care.  When she was 13, she was in foster care and raped by a 20 yr. old acquaintance of a foster roommate.  She got pregnant. 

She went to planned parenthood, but couldn’t bring herself to have an abortion.  She decided to keep the baby.  She returned home to her mother and shortly after delivering her baby, her rapist was sentenced to 10 years in prison. 

When her baby was nine-months-old, her mother died suddenly from a heart attack, leaving her, her baby, and her 10-year-old twin siblings with no parents and no home. 

They tried to live with a family member, but it was too much.  Her siblings were adopted by another family, and she decided the best thing she could do was give her baby opportunities that she never had. She decided to give her son up for adoption. 

So, at the age of 14, she had no home, no baby, no parents, and no siblings.  Then she ended up in my husband’s classroom. 

My husband teaches religion at Boystown.  It is his job to communicate the love of Jesus to broken-hearted youth.  What could he possibly tell this broken, young girl that would make a difference? 

“Jesus loves you.” 

Really? How in her short life could so many devastating things happen and there be a God who loves her?

“Jesus cares for you.”

Now that is easy to believe after everyone you have ever cared about has been ripped from your life. 

However, somewhere in the lesson plans, possibly between the book of Job and the prophet Isaiah, she found hope.  And once that hope was planted, it blossomed into an incredible flower of healing and forgiveness. 

On her last day at Boystown, she brought her Court-Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) to meet my husband.  It was the closest thing to family that she had. She informed him that Boystown was her 27th placement!  She was now going to live with her CASA and finish out her junior and senior year.

Now, she is in her first semester of college. She graduated from high school a semester early and is enrolled in a university and is loving every minute of it.  She made it. She overcame. With a life that was doomed for failure, she was able to succeed.  

She now travels the state speaking to foster care organizations about her experiences.  She has also spoken to foster kids themselves.  She is such an example for them.

She found hope in the Life-giver and there is nothing that can take it away.