My name is Jonathan Daly. I've been in and out of care pretty much my whole life. I first entered care when I was three years old, with my two younger sisters. After being bounced around to two or three homes, I went back to live with mom when I was five. When I was nine years old, a tragic car accident took my two sisters, my mother, and stepfather away from me. From that point on, I entered foster care permanently. Between the ages of 9 and 11, I went between three foster homes. I got to see a lot; I got to experience a lot, a lot of different religions, different cultures, and different parental methods. It was very difficult for me because in two years, going to three homes, that's an average of about eight months per home. It's very difficult to get used to how the kids are raised, how I'm supposed to act, the religions. So it took its toll on me. I had quite a difficult childhood.
When I was 11 years old I came into my permanent foster home, with André Fontaine. I've been living there ever since. I'm 21 years old now. It's been about 10 years this March. Five years after I moved in with him, I got adopted. Before I got adopted, and even after I got adopted, it wasn't easy. I was a teenager, so I had my share of troubles, but knowing I had this support system, it really helped me get through all of it. One of the biggest fears I ever had growing up, that no kid should ever have, is the fear of having to leave a family. It's really one of the worst things you can imagine. You make friends, they really become your family, your everything, and to have to leave that behind....
So being adopted for me was one of the biggest weights ever lifted off my shoulders. I have someone there that I can always go home to or always call on for help, whether it's to do laundry or to file taxes or to help me learn to cook or help me apply to school, whatever the situation. I always have André I can call on, and his partner Darcy.
I owe pretty much everything I have to that support system being there and to him being there, the social work I had as well, and all the support and love they were able to give to me, even with my troubled growing up.
Now I'm in school. I'm at Algonquin--a four-year program--and I love it. I have so much to look forward to, and I really owe it all to both Children's Aid and to André for giving me that forever home and that sense of belonging.
Thank you.