Hundreds of kids are waiting in foster care hoping to be adopted. We at KARK are hoping to help these kids find loving homes through our Wednesday’s Child Series.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – This week’s Wednesday Child, 12-year-old Malena, is a fun and energetic girl who is hopeful she will soon find a family.
Malena will bring so much fun and joy to a family. She loves being silly and said she sometimes uses humor to remind her of times with her siblings.
“It just reminds me of all the laughs I used to have with my sisters and brothers,” Malena said.
She is currently waiting in Arkansas’s foster system.
“Ever since I was about 9 or something like that,” she explained. “I’ve been in foster care for three years.”
She’s waiting for a family to embrace her for who she is as she moves around in different foster homes.
“I have to get used to another family and then I just move away from them and then I get used to another and then they move me,” Malena said.
It’s a reality no child or teen should have to face.
“She would call me sometimes crying like, ‘I want to go home but I don’t have a home so,'” Malena’s adoption specialist Breanna McClure recalled. “She definitely wants permanency. She wants to be adopted. She’s ready for people to accept her and to work through anything with her.”
McClure said an ideal family would be one invested in Malena’s mental health, adding that the 12-year-old has already been putting in the work in therapy.
“She told me whatever I do, just try to be nice, and how to control my anger by taking deep breaths or thinking about good thoughts,” Malena said.
Malena knows she can bring so much fun to a family if they will give her a chance.
“I am really kind and nice. I am pretty funny,” Malena said.
For information on adopting Malena, head to TheProjectZero.org.
