Local Family Encouraging Others To Adopt Teenagers After Life-Changing Adoption Of Their Own
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PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Statistics show there are more than 438,000 children currently in foster care. Many of them are teenagers hoping to find a loving home.
An East Norriton Family was looking for a younger child when they thought about adopting.
Their path ended up taking them in a different direction.
"We were looking for a 9 to 12-year-old girl and we ended up with a 16-year-old boy that's 6-foot-3," John Pascucci said.
Just as the Pascucci family's expectations of who they wanted to adopt changed, so did their lives with the adoption of Ethan six years ago.
Ethan, now a student at Syracuse University, had been in the foster care system since he was nine years old. He found stability with the Pascucci's who found new life adopting a teenager.
"We decided that we wanted a child that was older, and what's really great about adopting an older child is they have a say in what parents they want," Karen Pascucci said.
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"We wanted to give the love we have as a family and the stability that we have as a household, forever, to a child that's looking for that," John said.
Younger sister Charlie appreciates having an older brother.
"My brother's a really nice guy," she said. "He hangs out with me."
The Pascuccis encourage others to think of adopting not just the little kids, but teenagers as well, who often find themselves aging out of a system without a family.
"I found out that there were plenty of teenagers out there who were perfectly able to be contributing members of society, just don't have a family to support them," Karen said.
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The Pascuccis are now thinking about adopting another teenager and Ethan and his siblings look forward to that, as well.
The Pascucci family recently went out to Los Angeles for a special taping airing tonight. A Home For The Holidays airs at 8 p.m. on CBS3.
