The reality of our current culture is that families are not coming in to adopt – or even foster – older teens. Not that we always had a large contingent of such families, but it is much worse than ever. The shortage is across the country apparently, and it is since COVID. My administrative staff is convinced that it is a consequence of the way we live now. Everybody is too focused on themselves and their own needs. I get that; I expect that focus to be the focus for my own kids.

Yet, I remain convinced that there are some people out there who do have the wherewithal to give the kids a life. I keep thinking – hoping? – that it’s a matter of finding them. Thus, this blog. Our hope is that it will reach the people I am talking about or reach others who would know the people I am talking about: maybe a friend, a neighbor, a relative whom you suspect might take to these kids. Maybe someone who has raised their kids but is young enough to take on another. Or someone who has no kids but does have a settled life and is willing to do this. Someone.

Otherwise, what choice – what adult – is there for these 4% of the foster care population? The new idea is to not take the kids into foster care in the first place: leave them home or with other relatives and send in the services to get the families through. Sure, agreed. But not every kid has a family they can stay with. Some families are simply too broken. Some families have disappeared even.

What then about these kids? We believe there really aren’t that many of them – maybe 12,000 nationwide. We can’t find good homes in a country of about 350 million people? That’s about 30,000 people for each of the kids. Assuming half the country are adults, that’s still 15,000 people per child. And we can’t find them? Surely they exist. Right?

Right?