A story out of Texas is reaching the hearts of many. It’s the story of a 13-year-old boy named Tim, who entered foster care at age three, and has been in foster care for 10 years. Having been in foster care for a majority of his life and lived through many disappointments, this boy is desperate to be adopted.
Tim, the Teen Who’s Been in Foster Care for 10 Years
Last week ABC’s local affiliate in Dallas, Texas, WFAA, featured a boy named Tim last week, who entered the foster care system when he was only three years old, and now he’s 13. Tim’s caseworker flew him to Dallas from another location in Texas because she knew how hard it’s been for him to have been in foster care for 10 years. The idea was that being featured on WFAA’s Wednesday’s Child segment might help them find him adoptive parents. Wednesday’s Child is a news segment that gives viewers “a glimpse into a child’s life in foster care who wants more than anything to be adopted,” so this opportunity helped get the word out to others around the state who might be willing and able to adopt Tim.
According to WFAA, “Tim is ready to be done with the state being his parent,” and they asked him more about what he hopes to find in a family.
Watch him talk about his hopes in this video:
According to Tim, he’d like to have a mom, a dad, and a lot of siblings.
In the video interview, he shared, “I know I want a mom and dad at least.”
When asked what he hopes for in a mom, he said, “Someone that cares, who’s always worried. I may seem embarrassed sometimes, but she’ll still be wondering if I’m okay. She’ll ask how my day is every time I walk through the door.”
He shared he wants a dad who he can play ball with. “If I go outside, he’ll go outside with me. He’ll give me some normalcy,” Tim explained.
And when it comes to siblings, Tim shared, “Kind of gets boring playing by yourself.”
As he thinks about the idea of siblings, Tim goes on to say, “Plus, you can learn from them.”
While we don’t know what led to Tim having been in foster care for 10 years, according to him, he has a shining report at the residential treatment center for foster children where he’s stayed. “At home, I am an angel. Perfect,” he explained.
Tim has a vision of a family that would adopt him, and how they could build trust for one another. He talks about how many kids in foster care will run because they don’t know how to deal with it. He says about it, “Kind of like being in a prison without walls. You got runners, but then where you gonna go if you run? Absolutely nowhere but right back to where you ran from.”
But he envisions his adoption as being different. He explains that when he thinks about his adoptive family, he dreams about, “Freedom. Freedom to go out the door when I want and them not worrying about me coming back or not, because they know they can trust me.”
Tim isn’t the only one who’s been in foster care for 10 years, though. There are others who are also desperate to finally have a forever family…