There are times when you have an opportunity to make a difference in somebody’s life and if you do so, the results can really be amazing. This was seen in a beautiful way when a principal decided to change a student’s life for the better.
Jason Smith was a principal at the school when a 11-year-old girl named Raven was sitting outside of his office. She was in sixth grade and had been suspended for getting into a fight with another person in the class.
That was in 2015, and Jason couldn’t help but notice the student. He said: “She was just this sweet-looking, little innocent child sitting there, kind of defeated. I asked her, ‘What’s going on?’ and she said that she had thrown a cup of yogurt at lunch and had been suspended and was waiting to be picked up.”
He asked her if she thought she had done the right thing and used the metaphor of if it will be acceptable to throw food at a friend at a restaurant. She said that she had never gone to restaurants because she lived in a group home.
That was when Jason realized that he needed to do more for Raven. He went home and talk to his wife, Maribeth about the possibility of fostering her. They had wanted to start a family of their own but they were battling with infertility.
Since they could have a baby of their own, they had taken in three foster children and were hoping to adopt what they were sent back to their biological mother and father. It was just a series of letdowns and they were losing their dream of becoming parents.
When Jason talk to his wife about bringing Raven into the home, she perked up.
“This was something that, obviously, he felt pretty passionate about because I’m sure she’s not the only kid that he has dealt with who has been in a similar situation. So something about Raven was special to him, and obviously I trusted him,” she said.
Immediately, they started the foster parent recertification process and Raven was able to join their family in June. She felt awkward that she was living with her principal because she song has the bad guy, especially since she was always in trouble. After the first weekend, however, she felt right at home.
“They got everything that I needed without even knowing that I would be there forever,” she shared. “They just did it.”
It didn’t take long before she realized that they would always be her parents. It became official on November 3, 2017 when the judge signed the papers and she was adopted.
“Being in foster care completely changed my life,” Raven wrote in an essay, per GMA. “Being fostered by a great set of parents did not erase my trauma, but they provided me with an atmosphere where I learned how to work through it, believe in myself, and give hope to a hopeless kid.”
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