Photolisting Profile for Kaleia

Kaleia is a 14-year-old girl from Oregon who is hoping to be adopted.

Kaleia-14 and Keiauna-11 literally have their bags packed at the end of their beds and are ready to try adoption again. With surprising candor and optimism, these girls talk about wanting parents who will be kind to them and understand that it will take time for them to bond to another family. Kaleia hopes her forever family will also take the time to learn about what she likes and doesn’t like. For example, she loves singing, playing her X box, eating, cooking, camping, swimming, and most active, team sports, but she hates turkey, and fish, and needs her own space, sometimes. Keiauna wants her adoptive parents to know that she “will never stop loving her birth family,” but she can’t wait to call someone Mom, again. Keiauna likes to sing, too and is in her school’s choir.

She admits to feeling angry about how her life has gone so far, but she willing to try adoption again. Kaleia received counseling for about six months to help provide coping tools and strategies, but she says she’s “tired of counseling for now.” It is anticipated that both girls will benefit from counseling in the future.

Keiauna excels in school, both academically and socially, but has difficulty with impulse control and bouts of sadness. She sometimes complains that no one loves her and clamors for attention. Keiauna is currently in counseling to help her deal with the traumas she endured.

As siblings, the girls often have difficulty getting along with each other. They compete for positive adult attention, and argue over minor issues, regularly, but there is clearly a bond between them and a respect of each other’s space. Keiauna is more affectionate and willing to get close and hug, while Kaleia is more pragmatic and a stickler for the facts, but together they are charming, quick-witted and funny. Keiauna is an expressive comedian and Kaleia adds to the laughter with a dead-pan, side-kick routine.

Kaleia and Keiauna have 2 bio-brothers, with whom they have on-going visits. It is the girl’s hope that this relationship will be supported and contact maintained in the future. They also hope to re-establish contact with their birth mother, whom they have not contact with in over a year. The girls will need parents who can empathize with their conflicting feeling of loyalty, their distrust of adults, and their sometimes challenging behaviors. They need parents who can understand and effectively manage their individual needs and uneven development. Like many children who have been abuse and moved multiple times, Kaleia and Keiauna are street smart and know much more about adult issues (and will talk about them), than children their age.

These girls love animals, particularly farm animals, which they learned to care for in one of their placements. They hope for family pet and other kids to play with, but would “be ok with just the 2 of them,” as long as the parents are active. They get along well with children of all ages and they have many talents and positive attributes which will blossom once they feel safe & secure in knowing they have a family that will not hurt them but will stick with them forever and love them. With permanency, love, on-going support, predictability, structure, and lots of humor, it is expected that Kaleia and Keiauna will develop into the great women they are capable of becoming. They will make a joyful addition to the family that’s willing to put in the time and energy that they deserve.

Photo(s) Courtesy of www.afamilyforeverychild.org

Siblings

Keiauna (11)