Cheyanne Teasley

Senior Cheyanne Teasley stands with her adoptive parents, Sara and Chris Teasley, in front of the Nelson- Atkins Museum of Art. This place is significant for Teasley because it is where she first met her adoptive mom. (Photo by Natalie Sopyla)

Finding A Forever Family Living in foster homes since the age of 14, senior Cheyanne Teasley refuses to accept bad situations and, through faith and resilience, finds a permanent family to call her own.

BY NATALIE SOPYLA FEATURES EDITOR

After living in five different homes since the age of 12, would happen. senior Cheyanne Teasley was becoming frustrated with When she met Teasley, Sara was working at the Nelson Atkins the foster care system. She did not want to keep living in Museum of Art, where Teasley was taking art classes every Saturday. bad situation after bad situation. She wanted a real home. Sara described Teasley as a charming, conversational girl and noticed So rather than waiting for the government to find her a family, Teasley that Teasley became more open when they began to talk about art and went and found one herself. her dream of going to art school. After this meeting, Teasley decided

Raised by her grandmother until age 10, Teasley was sent to live to take her adoption into her own hands. The next Saturday before with her biological father upon her grandmother’s death. This proved her class, she went to Sara’s office, and asked Sara to adopt her. Sara to be an even worse situation than she’d been in before; her father was said she was completely taken aback by the boldness of this question. often angry and would lash out at her. But after living a happy life with “I basically told [Cheyenne] that I didn’t even know how to her grandmother, Teasley did not let this new situation get her down. process the question,” Sara said. She knew that this was not what her life was meant to be like. After talking to her husband, Sara knew that this was the answer

“People usually think ‘This is how my life is’,” Teasley said. “But she had been looking for on how to grow her family. According to I just thought, ‘No, this isn’t how my life is going to be for the next Sara, the decision ultimately came down to how they would feel about ten years.’” saying no, and the uncertainty of what might happen to Cheyanne if

After two years of living with her father, Teasley was placed into they refused. the foster care system. Living in a total of five foster homes in a system “I think that we thought basically ‘If you look back on this in that is underfunded was difficult. According to Teasley, only two of your life later, how will you feel about having said no?,’” Sara said. the homes she lived in were good. Teasley said that the other homes “You’ll never know what would have happened to this person.” she lived in were places where she often felt neglected. It didn’t take long for Sara and her husband to make the decision,

“The only money we got [from the state] to buy clothes was $125 but the process to formally adopt Teasley was long and arduous: four every six months,” Teasley said. years to be exact. Last November, it was finally completed, and now

Teasley also felt that many of the foster parents she lived with Teasley can’t recall how it felt not having parents. would favor their biological children over their foster children, and “It’s weird imagining [my mom] not being there my whole life,” she often felt like she wasn’t part of the family. Some people are lucky, Teasley said. “Like when I look back, I have to remind myself ‘Oh, I and get into foster homes where they eventually find a family, but didn’t even know her then.’” for Teasley, that wasn’t happening. Waiting around for the foster care Teasley says that she and her mom share a lot in common; they system to find her a family wasn’t working. Teasley turned to God for have the same taste in food and music, they share the same sense of help, in the hopes that He would help her find a family. humor, and each have an appreciation for art. Teasley shares a love

“I prayed because I didn’t know what else to do, and I wanted of guitar with her dad, who began teaching her two years ago. After parents,” Teasley said. “Not everyone understands that because falling in love with the instrument, she now practices almost every everyone has parents.” day, and she hopes to make guitar a part of her career some day.

As luck would have it, someone else was praying for Teasley too. Living in eight different family situations was frustrating for Teasley’s adoptive mother, Sion grade school art teacher Sara Teasley Teasley. But she did not simply accept her situation for what it was. said that in the week before she met Teasley, she had been praying for By taking matters into her own hands, Teasley found a family that she some kind of addition to their family, but she didn’t know how that will be a part of forever.