Sassy & 16
Rhiannon hopes for a loving family of her own
Don’t ask 16-year-old Rhiannon about the Fleetwood Mac song that bears her name. She doesn’t really like it. In fact, she grimaces if you even bring it up. What she does like is being creative and every now and then being surrounded by a little bit of nature.
“I like mostly reading, coloring and puzzles,” she says. In fact, as we talked, she had just finished a puzzle showing a scene from Arches National Park in Moab, Utah. “We can get some glue and you can glue it together, so you have it as a picture,” Lacie Saylers, her social worker, told her.
She also loves the Warrior Series of books featuring a clan of wild cats known as the ThunderClan. It’s a bit of fantasy and intrigue. Asked if she’s a book worm, Lacie looks at Rhiannon and laughs, saying, “She’s the wormiest.”
“I also love manga, all things manga,” Rhiannon adds, talking about the style of animation found in Japanese comic books.
Rhiannon is going to be a junior at Skyview High School in the fall. While she’s not big on school, she is big on the friendships she’s made there. “I appreciate them,” she says. “We are really close.” It’s why she would love to be able to stay at Skyview to finish her high school career.
While she’s only been in foster care for a little less than two years, she’s already had some time to think about what she’d love in a family and in a home. For starters, she’d love siblings but is also OK being an only child.
“I have to be able to trust the safety in the house and at least have some good communication,” she says with a serious tone. She giggles as she says, “Not so strict but strict enough that I can handle it.”
She longs for family game nights with some weekend camping trips sprinkled in.
“It’s good to get out and enjoy nature every now and then,” she says.
She also talks about what she might want to do for a career one day. “I want to basically help rehab animals and return them to the wild,” she says. “They really need our help, but some people pass them by as if they are nothing.”
Her social worker, Lacie, asks, “Do you want to help animals because you wish someone would have helped you?” Rhiannon says quietly, “Yes.”
While this teen can be quiet and introspective, Lacie describes her as sassy and a teen who thrives on attention.
“She has a big sense of humor and it’s always funny,” Lacie says.
When it comes to what kind of family Lacie truly hopes Rhiannon finds, she says, “I think Rhiannon would thrive off a positive, loving environment. She told me recently that she dishes out what she gets, so if someone loves her unconditionally, she will love them unconditionally.”
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT RHIANNON or the foster-adoption system in general, call Danielle Metcalf at 406-657-3120. While Rhiannon needs an adoptive home, many times the primary goal for children in the system is to have a temporary placement while social workers strive to reunify them with their biological family. Each family wanting to become licensed foster-adoptive home must undergo 18 hours of mandatory training to learn what it takes to become a successful foster family.
