Ashley Rhodes-Courter

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"Sunshine, you're my baby and I'm your only mother. You must mind the one that is taking care of you, but she's not your mama." Those are the word that Ashley Rhodes-Courter had to live off of for nine years of her life. She was born June 7, 1985 in North Carolina. At the age of 12, Ashley was adopted after being in fourteen different placement homes. She once lived in a two bedroom trailer with 16 other foster children.

Ashley has won many different prizes and awards for her help with foster children. She was the 2004 Youth Advocate of the year for North America Council on Adoption Children. She also won the Child Welfare League of American "Kids to Kids" National Service Grand Prize. Ashley was recently honored as a recipient of the 2007 "Golden Brick" through the Brick Awards. The Brick Awards celebrates young people making the world a better place.

Ashley Rhodes-Courter's goal is to ensure that the more than 118,000 foster children waiting for a replacement would be more than just a sad statistic. She doesn't want other children to have to go through what she went through. She had a very tough childhood. "Imagine not having a home for your birthday."

(google)

Ashley Rhodes-Courter is my hero because she is helping kids all around the world with the same problem that she had when she was growing up. She wrote a book called "Three Little Words". The words that she based the book on was "I guess so". She has a passion to tell her story with other foster children.

Even though I am not a foster child, Ashley has inspired me that I can accomplish any hardship that I go through in life. Life isn't always going to be easy and sometimes you're just going to have to work hard for what you want to achieve. I think that Ashley Rhodes-Courter is a very good role model.