Updated 05/10/2010 10:02 AM
Biography: Jarod Smith
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Jarod was born December 27, 1990. He entered foster care when he was 10 years old.
"When I first got into foster care, I stayed there about two and a half years,” Jarod said. “Then I went to Killeen and I stayed there a year. That was the longest I stayed. Every other place was a month, a week, two weeks. It got that bad. I thought I needed a place to stay, and at the same time I wanted to withdraw from everybody else. With my foster dad and my foster mom, I just didn't want to click."
News 8 featured Jarod on two back-to-back Forever Families segments in 2006. During that time he wanted a family that would stick with him through thick and thin. He said whoever wants to love me then, I’ll love them back.
In 2007, Jarod was featured a third time on Forever Families. This time he had given up on finding a family.
"Yeah, I had some things going. My will was black. When I did the interview with Amy? Yeah, it was pretty hard at the time because I was going through hardcore depression. Point blank, hardcore depression," Jarod said.
In 2009, Jarod aged out of foster care after having been through 35 foster homes. He became homeless.
"I thought I could do it on my own, but it crashed on me. My whole world, it just crashed in. All the emotions and the anger, it made my body feel weak. All that stress and the pain, it just collapsed on me," Jarod said.
In 2010, Jarod found a boarding house to live in and started a job at Wendy’s.
"I need parents bad right now. It would be better if I did have parents right now. At the same time, I'm locking myself out in the dark because my feelings are just clashing with each other. I'll be happy, and then the next moment I'll be just mad at simple things. And it’s because nobody was really there to show me. I could show myself, but nobody was really there to show me the way, or how to do things," Jarod said.
Jarod said he needs parents to coach him through life.
“Like football players, they have sideline coaches? I don't want a sideline. I want somebody playing with me, but at the same time like a quarterback, telling me the plays," Jarod said.