17-year-old's adoption story

A nicely-done story (though why all these one-sentence paragraphs?!) of the adoption of a 17-year-old, reported by the Rio Grande Valley Monitor:

Leah Garcia, 18, feels like one of the lucky ones.

At 17, she had given up all hope of finding her forever family.

She worried what the future had in store for someone like her, who had no where to call home and no one to call a family.

Leah’s status as an adoptable child was coming to an end as she neared adulthood — at least in the eyes of the state.

Inside, she still felt like a scared child.

“Who would I turn to for support?” she constantly asked herself.

Her two younger siblings had already been adopted and after meandering through nearly 100 foster care homes since the age of 12, Leah was losing hope fast.

Her answer would come later at an adoption expo in Austin, where she met her adoptive parents Roxanne and Elias Garcia of Hidalgo.

The couple — a first-grade teacher and a police officer — immediately fell in love with the 17-year-old and went through the adoption process, which was expedited because of her age. A child in foster care can no longer be adopted once he or she turns 18.

“She brought a lot of joy to our home,” her mother Roxanne said. “We’re blessed to have her as our daughter.”