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She liked to hang out with friends, play sports and watch movies. But once she turned 18 she was handed a box with some of her belongings and shown the door. She had aged out of the foster care system and was on her own.

"I don't think that people understand it's not a home. It's a temporary placement, and some people like myself don't find a family," she said.

While her friends went away for college, Ashley was forced to work and go to school part-time so she could afford her living expenses. Ashley didn't know how to sign a lease or open a bank account. She was all on her own. She didn't even learn how to drive in foster care.

"I didn't have a parent to tell me, 'Don't sign that credit card application. That's not good; just call us,'" she said.

She said she had experience after experience wishing she had parents who were there for her.

"There are a lot of times when you're doing sports and you want your parents there, or you're a girl and you are going through something and just want to talk with your mom about it. You never get to be daddy's little girl, and my brothers never got to be mama's boys. We never got some of that stuff," she said.

Moving from home to home wasn't easy either.

"It's scary because you get taken away from everything you know. You're placed into a new situation with new people, sometimes a new town, a new school. And you're just supposed to be comfortable, and when you're not they label you."

Ashley learned how to live out of a suitcase. She said she eventually lost her trust in adults.

"It's hard, too, when these foster families take you in or you're being placed there and the minute you do something wrong in their eyes, whatever they see as wrong, they just toss you out because they don't want to put up with you. They don't want to take the time to take care of you," she said.

Although she’s not technically up for adoption, Ashley can still be adopted and hasn’t given up hope of finding a family to call her own.

For more information about kids waiting to be adopted, contact the Adoption Coalition of Texas by calling (512) 301-2825, or by visiting them online.