AUSTIN, Texas — Every week on KVUE, we feature a different child in the Texas foster care system, in hopes of helping them get adopted by a forever family.
Aaron is 16 years old and delights in personal expression and finding different ways to show his artistic abilities. He's currently working on illustrating an anime book.
"I have hundreds of characters I've worked on for years. They all have different names and looks. But sometimes, I get worried people will copy my designs, so I hesitate to show them," Aaron said.
Aaron met up with KVUE's Hannah Rucker at the Austin Central Fire Station One in Downtown Austin for a morning of shadowing firefighters.
The men and women there gave a tour of the station, showing how it operates a lot like a house because of the long work hours. They also allowed Aaron to ride along inside one of their firetrucks.
Aaron said he's eager to move out of his group home and into a stable and comforting home environment with a forever family.
"I want my freedom back," Aaron said, noting the challenges of being a teenager in foster care and not always feeling a sense of normalcy.
Aaron said feels he would do best in a home with two fathers.
He said he enjoys rollerblading, is a huge animal lover and his favorite food is barbecue.
"I am a Texas kid, after all," he said.
To learn more about Aaron or to put in an inquiry to adopt him, visit his page on the Heart Gallery of Central Texas.
KVUE launched the Forever Families segment with Partnerships for Children (PFC) in June 2020 to highlight children in the Heart Gallery of Central Texas who need secure and permanent families. Every day, there are nearly 1,000 children waiting to get adopted in Central Texas, according to PFC.
Editor's note: The children who are in the Heart Gallery program and featured in KVUE's Forever Families segments are children who have had every effort made on their behalf to connect them with family or others in their community to provide options for permanent, adoptive homes. Through no fault of their own, that hasn’t happened yet, and so in partnership with the Department of Family and Protective Services, we collaborate to bring awareness to KVUE viewers about these children in the hopes of finding them permanency before they age out.