It’s a tragedy that so many teenagers spend years of their life in foster care never getting the forever family they deserve.
More than 23,000 children will age out of the foster care system each year in the U.S. and many will find themselves homeless, according to the National Foster Youth Institute.
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Akyra feared she would become one of these tragic statistics after spending the equivalent of 10 years or 3,739 days in the foster care system.
The now 17-year-old had lived in 24 different foster homes when she met Katie Holstein, a single mom from Kentucky who had fostered 16 kids since 2017.
“I started the process to become licensed as a foster parent in January of 2017. I wanted to be a mom, and I was tired of waiting around for Mr. Right to make it happen,” Katie told Love What Matters.
“I figured I would foster for several years, help reunite some families, and maybe eventually get to say yes to forever.”
Katie had never fostered a child over the age of 6 until she was told about Akyra in a call from her “favorite social worker” who had a special request.
“I know you don’t do teens, but I have this girl. She’s great, she and her current foster family just need a break. What about just for the weekend?”
