A 19-year-old woman who spent most of her life in foster care has finally been adopted by her former caseworker.
Per WTEN, 19-year-old Monyay Peskaledis met Leah Peskaledis - who would later become her adoptive mother - when she was just 13 years old.
When the young adult was only a teen, Leah made a promise, per the outlet.
Speaking to WTEN, she explained: "Everything is official, the one thing that I wanted since I was a kid has finally come true. I made her a promise that I would find her an adoptive family… I just didn’t know that I would be the adoptive family."
Learn more about the touching story below:Over the years, the pair became increasingly close, however, Leah was unable to adopt the teen until she had already aged out of the system. The new mother and daughter now aim to raise awareness and are urging others to adopt older children and adolescents.
Leah went on to tell WTEN: "I just wish that people that are open to adoption don’t look at an age and a picture and are just open to getting to know them as a person."
Despite her difficult situation, Monyay did well at school and was able to graduate early.
She told the publication: "Just knowing that when I turned 18 I was going to be by myself, that’s really what drove me to push myself to graduate early despite everything…"
"Most people believe that we’re in here because we got into some kind of trouble, but really it’s just the circumstance and, no, we don’t want to be in here either."
It has been reported that more than 23,000 children each year age out of the foster care system in the US. Sadly, once these children turn 18, about 20% of them will immediately become homeless.
Furthermore, a meager one out of every two foster children who age out of the system will go on to attain some form of adequate employment by the age of 24.
Monyay and Leah, though, will be celebrating their first mother's day together this weekend.
Congrats to the duo!
