Photolisting Profile for Lyndreanna 'Anna'

Lyndreanna 'anna' is a 14-year-old girl from Oregon who is hoping to be adopted.

If given three wishes, Anna only has one: to be in a place where she knows she can stay. After 2 ½ years in foster care and 3 moves, she says she wants a forever family, even if it’s just one parent. Someone she can count on to see her through high school and college and maybe walk her down the isle, someday. Anna is bonded to her foster family and loves them dearly. She’d like them to adopt her and it hurts her heart that they can’t, but she understands and accepts that reality. Anna is a beautiful, bright and articulate young lady, who does very well in school, including being on the student council 2 years in a row. On the surface, Anna likes all the things most 14 year old girls like: shopping, make-up, clothes, music and boys, but there is much more to Anna that what’s on the surface. As a young child, she experienced neglect, abuse and abandonment. She’d been exposed to a lifestyle of drugs and domestic violence, and she coped by trying to parent her three younger siblings, which she readily admits she did badly. Anna’s feelings toward her parents are understandably anger and grief, and she is able to express those feelings appropriately.

Anna says it’s not normal to grow up like that, but neither is growing up in foster care. When she first came into care and was later separated from her three siblings (who are being adopted together, out of State), Anna says she was out of her mind with anger, and thought everyone was out to hurt her. Since being separated from her siblings, and with the support of her foster parents and counselor, she has made tremendous progress. She has a strong desire to maintain contact with her siblings, but is ready to move on with her life.

Anna needs a parent(s), who is willing to listen, when she wants to talk, but will give her space, too. She will usually seek out counsel when she needs it and has participated in counseling on and off over the years. She is currently in counseling, working on adoption issues. Anna is open to any parent, but would have difficulty with a parent who is too strict or very religious. She would prefer to be the only child or eldest, as she recognizes the struggle with trying to parent younger children when presented with the opportunity.

Over the past year, Anna has had the opportunity to travel to Las Vegas, Fresno, California and the Grand Canyon with her foster family. She rode a roller-coaster and camped for the very 1st time and she loved it all. She hopes to ride in a plane or on a train, and she’d really like to see Florida, someday. Anna has also spent considerable time volunteering in her community. She says she enjoys helping others, especially struggling families.

Anna enjoys most activities, in-side and out, especially swimming, but she does have exercise-induced asthma, for which she uses an inhaler. She also has flat feet, making running games more difficult. What Anna would like prospective adoptive parents to know about her is that she is outgoing, friendly, kind and caring, but she can be stubborn, too. She also says she is “crazy loud, colorful and loves loud colors.

Anna needs a parent who will commit to her, long term. She needs someone who uses rewards and encourages improvements whenever possible. A parent who is willing to work out the “rules” with Anna ahead of time and then follow up with the agreed consequences, if the rules are broken, without challenge or lecture. She needs a parent(s) who will support her in continuing to heal from her past traumas, and her need to maintain contact with her siblings. She needs someone who can understand her fear and hesitancy to bond right away; someone who is calm and in control, so she knows she doesn’t have to be controlling everything.

Life with Anna may be more or less as challenging as it would be with any teen, but Anna is an insightful and charming girl who will bring much more joy, as she reaches her full potential.

Photo(s) Courtesy of www.afamilyforeverychild.org