A Minor is about to reach an age at which he is no longer eligible to get foster care protection & he gets adopted 6 days before turning 18.
Eric’s 18th birthday was around the corner. Instead of getting excited about it, Eric was tensed up. Soon he was to lose foster care protection. His only way out would be to get adopted. But his chances of being adopted were remote. Suddenly Lady Luck glanced at him. A family stepped in & Eric was blessed with something precious – a forever home.
Innumerable kids are fostered every year but only a microscopic minority of them get a chance to enter into homes where warm-hearted people live. The harsh asymmetry of adoptions to abandonment opens up a vista.
Eventually not all children are blessed with the chance of growing up with parents. Only the lucky ones get their last names changed. Incidentally there are those unfortunate ones who enter the world alone as adults, trying to get adjusted into it where the only love they know is the one they give to themselves.
Eric was put under foster care at the tender age of six. Since then, Eric has been in numerous placements. None of them culminated into adoption. In order to give Eric a better chance, Child Protective Services tried to place him with his relatives. Eric’s bad luck, it didn’t work out. Very soon helpless Eric found himself back into the system again at age 16.
Time & Tide waits for none. As days passed into months, reality marched ahead & its loud thuds were dangerously heard. Eric had an ambition. He was all set to put in his efforts.
“I want to go to Prairie View A&M, & study business,” Eric said with a twinkle in his eyes.. “I like writing poems, Doing music & Sports,” he added excitedly.
But the main issue was still hovering over Eric’s head. Eric’s age inched alarmingly closer to the deadline. Eric kept his fingers crossed. And it happened. Aaron & Eranisha Franklin were watching the news segment of Eric’s story. At that crucial hour, it was a gut feeling. They wanted to do something. It was now or never.
“This young man will actually age out of the foster care system soon,” Aaron thought pensively.
Incidentally Franklins already had four adopted children. They talked to Eric and hit it off instantaneously.
“We loved him on day one,” Aaron remarked when asked. And this love changed everything for Eric.
Just six days before Eric’s 18th birthday, the Franklin family were out at the Tarrant County Family Law Center. Their “jerseys” with the words “Team Eric” were gleaming in the sun. Each jersey pointed out the order in which the kids were welcomed into the family. Eric was allotted number 7.
Judge Jerome Hennigan couldn’t help smiling. Cherishing the occasion he remarked, “it’s a special feeling to be able to grant the adoption.”
“It feels good to be able to provide him with a home, a family and people to surround him, love him and give him something to be thankful for, for Thanksgiving,” Eranisha told when asked with a shine in her eyes.
Everything was timed for Eric – the exciting holidays, – a forever home of course with a loving family. Watch out for this young man’s greatest gift!
