CONVERSE, Texas – Under the shade of a pavilion at a city park, Jeremiah, 15, who’s entering his freshman year of high school, showed off his skateboarding skills.
He remembers the first skateboard he ever had.
“It was with my mom and my stepdad. It was my birthday,” he said. “We were at a pool. My first skateboard. I couldn’t swim, so I literally rode my skateboard into the pool.”
“My stepdad jumped in and got me,” he said with a laugh.
That memory and one of a trip to Disney World are two of the few he can recall from the time before he was placed in the custody of Child Protective Services.
Jeremiah can’t quite remember how long it's been.
“The whole time I’ve been in CPS, I’ve been moving a lot,” he said. “I haven’t been sticking in one place.”
Making those moves hasn’t always been easy, he said, because it's tough to know what do and what not to do in each new environment.
Jeremiah likes to be ready for anything any time he leaves the house.
“Everywhere I go, the backpack I have, I call it ‘adventure pack,’” he said. “I take it with me everywhere.”
He carries a football, headphones, tape, a portable speaker, a tablet and hair products for his curly locks.
Sometimes when he’s listening to music and drowning out the noise around him, he likes to dance. Jeremiah said he’s not any good, but he makes up moves as he goes -- similar to the way he likes to cook. He doesn’t often follow recipes when he whips something up.
Jeremiah recently moved in with a new foster father and brothers, and he cooked them scrambled eggs.
How does he make them?
“That’s my secret,” he said with a laugh. “I just make up stuff as I go. I'm that type of person not to worry about stuff. I just go.”
Jeremiah does keep something on this mind: the memory of his mother, who died when he was 13 years old.
“Mostly at night, though, as I go to sleep. I fall asleep as I think about her,” Jeremiah said.
He hopes a mother and father will one day adopt him. He’d like to have siblings, too. He said he’s looking for a family he can be active with and a family he can love.
“I'd care for them. I'd look after them,” he said.
Jeremiah has two sisters -- one of them his twin -- and one brother, who are also in foster care. He usually sees them once a month.
If you have room in your heart and home for Jeremiah, you can call 210-337-3117 or visit to www.adoptchildren.org, where you can also learn more information about to foster or adopt a child.