Once-Troubled Teen Blossoms with Knox County Adoptive Family

Dec 1, 2017 10:05 AM ET

Originally posted on The Columbus Dispatch

DANVILLE, Ohio — If she were to wait for just the right place or occasion, Sariah Brady figures, she might never wear the cherry-red swing coat. So why not grab it for the short walk to the family auto shop?

Sariah’s mom smiles as she and her 18-year-old daughter, an aspiring model, stride past modest houses and work trucks along Washington Street. With her dark curls and high heels and bright coat, Sariah is resplendent against the gray November sky.

“Yeah,” Corena Brady says. “She’s beautiful.”

Biracial, city-born and adopted from foster care, Sariah stands out in this overwhelmingly white, rural, football-crazy community. And that’s funny, Sariah and her family say, because she has never in her life felt so at home.

“It’s almost like she’s been here all along,” Brady said.

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