Foster Care Narrative

Jenifer W. is a freshman in college. She is age 18, and she has just discovered she is five months pregnant. She thought a college degree was more important than being a young mother. She wanted her child to be as fortunate as she was. She wanted the best for her child, so she started looking online for adoption agencies. Her and her mom came across American Adoptions. She wanted her baby to have a loving, caring family and she knew that would not have happened if she had raised the baby. Her mother called American Adoptions and was connected to a social worker named Sarah. Sarah soon became a good friend of Jenifer and her family. Sarah gave Jenifer her cell phone number and told her she could call anytime twenty-four hours, seven days a week. They began talking on a daily basis. Sarah began calling and checking in on Jenifer’s doctor’s appointments. Sarah sent photos of her baby to the family who was going to adopt her baby. The family who was going to adopt the baby was Bret and Diane. Sarah fell in love with Bret and Diane almost instantaneously. Sarah, Bret and Diane’s first phone call was in January. Bret and Diane were kind, compassionate and non judgmental. They called Jenifer “their little angel” (American adoptions). Jenifer, Sarah, Bret, Diane, and Jenifer’s parents all met at Ihop and became good friends. Bret and Diane began going to Jenifer’s doctor’s appointments as well. Diane got to hear her daughter’s heart beat for the first time. Lauren Marie was born February 20th, 2008. Jenifer wanted Diane to cut the umbilical chord because she felt it was her own child.

Jenifer was a freshman in college, age 18, when she discovered she was five months pregnant. She knew that a college degree was far more important than dropping out and struggling make ends meet for her and her child. Jenifer wants the best life for her child, so she decides to put her child up for adoption. She along with her parents talked about it, and they believe adoption is the best result for the situation. Adoption is a good thing because those who are less fortunate with parents that are not responsible, they would want to be put up for adoption and have the best life possible. This is the same thing with Jenifer’s case. Jenifer is the responsible adolescent parent who is taking responsibility for her mistake and putting the child up for adoption. A quote that explains this is, “I always felt like my mom saw it like there were three doors with three different babies behind them”(Toth 90). The system involved is the adoption agency of America and the foster care system.

Jenifer begins researching online to find adoption agencies. She comes across American Adoptions. She and her mom calls them one day and tells them her situation, she is immediately connected to a social worker. The social worker’s name is Sarah. She and Sarah begin talking weekly. Soon after that, Sarah gave Jenifer her cell phone number and told her she could call her anytime. Jenifer began sending pictures of her baby after the ultrasound to Sarah so a family interested could see what the baby looked like. A quote that would explain this would be “In 1965, Central opened its doors officially to white children, but it was nearly twenty years before the first white child was placed there” (Toth 33). This quote is talking about how people accept what they are given.