Despite dire predictions, most are now thriving adults
Jahi Chikwendiu / Washington Post
Debbie Anzelone laughs with her adopted son, Jeff, during dinner at their home on in Beltsville, Md.
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By Theresa Vargas
updated 5:01 p.m. ET, Thurs., April 15, 2010
Ryan Reed Kaufman was 4 years old, unwanted by a mother who smoked crack while she was pregnant, living with a foster family who pacified him with NyQuil every night at bedtime. He had no reason to expect that the grown-ups who came to visit him one day at child protective services might take him home with them.
But he knew enough to try. When they handed him a coloring book, he stayed within the lines as best as he could. When they gave him a box of Legos, he asked to build a house. When it was done, he placed a toy boy inside it and then asked, "Who will take care of the little boy?"
Ryan recalls that moment only vaguely, but he's heard the story since that meeting in 1992, back when the term "crack baby" was used to describe children such as him and experts predicted that children born to addiction would become a biological underclass, super-predators who would cause the crime rate to surge, a lost generation. Read more at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36571290/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/?ns=health-more_health_news
