You can go to many houses, but can only call one ‘home’. The same was with the 13-year-old Alex who spent 11 years in the unknown, unsettled life of the foster care system. On the other hand, a childless couple was looking for the last piece that would complete their family. That is when they came across Alex on Jeff Gianola’s Wednesday’s Child segment in October 2017. It was love at first sight and they immediately wanted to know more about him.
For the parents, Alex was the perfect kid. Jenny says, “Anybody who’s seen that video of Alex, his core awesome comes out in that video. It was such a great thing, the way Jeff Gianola talked to him and Alex’s interaction with him, it really gave us a glimpse of who Alex is. We had been looking for a very long time.” On the opposite end, Stephen explained that they had been planning to open their arms and their space for an older child. He quipped, “I said, we have an extra bedroom.” For 11 long years, the 13-year-old had been with 15 different foster families.
Alex finds a home after living with 15 families in 11 years in foster care
The delighted boy could not believe the news at first. He said, “I didn’t believe them. This is not going to happen, you guys are just trying to fool me. It was a really big struggle to [think] ‘OK, I’m going from this home, in two weeks I’m going to another home’. I didn’t think I was going to find a forever home this good.” The 2020 Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System show that over 5,000 fewer children are in the ’waiting for adoption’ category this year compared to 2019. The newly released data indicates the number of children in foster care decreased for the third consecutive year, to an estimated 407,000 at the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2020.
