Des Moines Register
05-31-06
Dateline Iowa
By REGISTER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
Story on teen adoption features Iowa woman
A 20-year-old Iowa woman is featured in this week's Time Magazine in an article
about the complexities of adopting teenagers.
When SaBreena Boyd was 11, she stood before a church congregation in
Muscatine and asked for a new family. Des Moines residents Tina and Stuart
Juarez gave her one, then were taken aback by her explosive temper.
Boyd shoved a classmate's head through a school window and, in the same
week, broke another girl's jaw. She repeatedly ran away, and got pregnant at 15.
Time reports that 54 percent of young adults formerly in foster care as
adolescents have mental-health problems. But the number of 12- to 18-year-olds
adopted out of foster care has risen, from 6,000 in 2000 to 10,000 in 2004, due
partly to financial incentives and intensive campaigns promoting adoptions.
Boyd, who is now a senior at Iowa State University and married with two
children, said she's relieved her parents adopted her, despite her troubles. "They
realized I was my own person," she said with a laugh.