SAN ANTONIO – A local household proves you’re never too old to be part of the family.
Most parents who think about adopting a child imagine bringing home a baby, but so many teenagers also want to be in a loving home.
Only one in ten adoptions in Texas last year gave a teen the chance to move into a permanent home.
One of those adoptions was by Sheryl Faber, a 54-year-old single mother.
Inside her home, a mother and her daughters are together at the kitchen table.
Stephanie and Amber are doing homework while Sheryl writes an article about adopting a teenager.
"I've heard that so many times: 'I've always thought about doing that,’” Sheryl says. “People say it, then they don't take the steps to actually do it."
And the reason people don’t, Sheryl says, is they worry about what it would be like.
Just ask her biological daughter Amber.
"I thought it was going to be awkward at first having someone I don't know be my sister,” 15-year-old Amber Rodriguez says.
No one had more to lose than Stephanie, the girl about to be adopted.
"I was just nervous and scared,” Stephanie Chariglione says.
And wouldn’t you be? She’s just 15 but has bounced around between ten foster homes.
"Them not liking me,” Stephanie says was her biggest fear about joining Sheryl and Amber’s family.
But they more than like Stephanie. They love her.
"I thought it would be much, much more difficult but it wasn't difficult at all,” Sheryl says about adopting a teenager. “She was 100 times easier than I thought she was going to be."
Sheryl says actually, the hardest part of the adoption process was the paperwork and training.
"You just take training on meds,” Sheryl says. “A lot of children who are in adoptive situations are on medication for ADHD and mood swings."
Stephanie was officially adopted into the family last summer. Sheryl took several weeks off from work to help the family adjust to a new life – one that made both daughters feel blessed.
"I thought, I have a home that's nice,” Amber says. “Why not want someone else to have what I do?"
Stephanie says she feels so lucky to have escaped the foster home system.
"There are a lot of kids out there that need homes and families and love,” she says.
Sheryl is now planning to adopt another teenager.
Click here to visit the state of Texas' adoption website and to view waiting kids. That website has more details on the adoptions process and information on how to get started.
The Adoption Coalition of Texas also has resources to help families learn more about adoption.
