each year 20% of children leave foster care at age 18 without an adoptive family.
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Ashley’s Story
Ashley was just seventeen and still finishing high school when she learned that she was pregnant.
At first, she considered parenting her expected infant. But after careful consideration, Ashley decided she was not prepared. At Boys & Girls Aid, Ashley met Karen, one of our adoption counselors. Together they talked about the kind of family in which Ashley wanted her child to grow up. Ashley hoped for a family that would be willing to develop a relationship with her throughout the pregnancy. She also asked for an unconventional family. She described her perfect family as “out of the box.”
The Mitchells were a natural match. An artistic, creative, professional family, the Mitchells shared Ashley’s desire for an ongoing relationship. Months before the baby’s birth, Ashley and the Mitchells began seeing each other. They shared trips to the pre-natal clinic visited each other’s homes. When baby Nathan was born in the spring, the Mitchells camped out throughout the labor in the hospital waiting room.
Today, Ashley and the Mitchells continue to keep in touch with a very open, mutually supportive relationship. Ashley joined the Mitchells for Nathan’s first Halloween and when Ashley walked at her high school graduation, the Mitchells were there in the audience, cheering her on.