A teenage boy who had been stuck in the foster care system in the United States since he was 11 years old said he “was very happy” to learn he was being adopted.
Roman Balassaitis was adopted on Tuesday afternoon at the Clay County Courthouse in Green Cove Springs, Florida just hours before his 18th birthday, he told First Coast News.
Brad and Renee Balassaitis adopted Roman, who first came to them when he was 12 years old. He joins Brad and Renee’s other children, Tom, 28, Chrissy, 26, Austin, 22, Jared, 22, Sammy, 20, Halle, 18, and Tatiana, 17. Roman is the seventh child the couple has adopted out of foster care, along with their two biological children.
“I was sweating bad,” Roman told the outlet. “My heart was beating. I was very happy. It means I have someone to go to. It means if I need someone to talk to, I have people to talk to now.”
Roman Nehemiah Balassaitis was adopted just hours before his 18th birthday. ♥
— WCNC Charlotte (@wcnc) October 20, 2023
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Brad Balassaitis described to the outlet how when the family first “fostered him for about nine months” Roman “wasn’t ready to be part of a family” and “pushed people away” due to being “driven by a fear of abandonment.”
Roman ended up leaving the family, leaving them “heartbroken” until years later when he reached out to Halle Balassaitis through social media and was invited to dinner with the family.
“Today was a race to the finish line for Roman a day before he turns 18,” Renee Balassaitis told the outlet. “And once he turns 18, there’s no adoption through the state as a minor. We’d have to go about it a whole different way. And so, a lot of people work really hard at the end to get it all done in the nick of time.”
Jeanne T. Tate, a Florida adoption attorney explained to TODAY that for a lot of teenagers orphaned in the foster care system, the “clock is ticking.”
“We see very grim statistics about children who age out of the system at 18,” Tate explained to the outlet. “If you look at our prison population, more than 60 percent of them have been in foster care.”
Tate noted that some programs geared toward college students, seek to help individuals from the foster care system between 18 and 21.
However, studies show that between 3-4% of former foster care youth end up obtaining a degree from a four-year college, while between 2-6% end up receiving a degree from a two-year college, according to the National Foster Youth Institute (NFYI).
“Kids like Roman have experienced a lot of trauma and instability,” Tate added. “Not being adopted is the final nail in the coffin. There’s no where for them to go, so they end up in prison or on the streets. They turn 18 and it’s like, ‘Good luck.'”
Since his adoption, Roman “has been walking lighter,” Renee Balassaitis told the outlet. “It’s like a huge weight has been lifted off his shoulders and you can see it in the way he moves.”
