Help Karen adopt Leanna

Hi, my name is Christie and I’m starting this fundraiser to help my sister adopt her daughter. This is their story. My sister, Karen, was one of those kids that everyone said would have a dozen children. She didn’t, and yet she did, in her own atypical way. When she was fifty and embarking on a new life path, she became a foster parent. She fostered a number of children (more than the aforementioned dozen), many of whom she still encounters in the community who are always excited to see her (even some of the parents are delighted to encounter Karen). Then she met Savanna and Leanna. The following paragraph is in Karen’s own words.

“Leanna Perry came to me when she was 7 months old. Her 16 year old mother was my foster daughter and technically Leanna was not in state care. Leanna’s mother, Savanna had been in foster care since she was 5 years old and was found wandering a neighborhood looking for help because her mother had overdosed on drugs at a park. After a bumpy childhood in state care, including 2 failed adoptions, Savanna found herself pregnant at 15 and a mom at 16. That’s when I met them.”

When Savanna aged out of the foster care system, she asked Karen to be Leanna’s legal guardian, to which of course she immediately agreed. Savanna’s adult life was, and remains a difficult one; she is currently incarcerated and will remain so for another 10 years. Leanna has had the remarkable gift of stability and love that her biological mother never got, thanks entirely to my sister and her ever expanding love.

Karen decided to stop fostering and focus more on being Leanna’s mom but her passion for children remains strong. To that end she started doing in-home childcare which allows her to work with kids, share her love and still have Leanna be her primary focus. Her childcare families love her, to some of them she is even “grandma.”

One of the primary reasons to adopt Leanna is to ensure that should anything (God forbid) ever happen to Karen, we can make sure that Leanna stays with a family member who knows and loves her as well as to stay in the loving community of friends she has grown up with. Without this safety net, Leanna could end up with strangers in the foster system.

Giving Leanna the security of a forever family is the bottom line here. Please help if you are able. Any amount will be appreciated, this money will be used exclusively for this purpose.

Thank you so much for your support.