Adopting an Older Child
After 15-year-old Florida orphan Davion Only was forced to make a plea to find an adoptive family, a woman who has adopted 20 of her 22 children, including seven of them as teenagers, is encouraging families considering adoption to adopt older children.
"No matter how old a child or youth is, he or she is never too old to need a family. Everyone needs a family for a lifetime, or as we say, 'Not just a family to grow up in, but a family to grow old in,'" noted Sue Badeau, a national adoption and fostering expert and Christian author in a release on Friday.
"Even the most competent, capable 18, 19 or 20 year old who is heading off to college and career still needs a family -- for advice, guidance, support, someone to be there for them in good times and bad, and later to be a grandparent to their own children," she added.