INTRODUCTION TO ME— Jana Hays

   My adopted name is Jana Holiday Hays. My birth name is Jana Elaine Olson. I was born on February 20, 2002. I am now nineteen years old and living a quiet life as a janitor. I have four beautiful male cats Chico, Chase, Charlie, and Salem. We live in a basement studio apartment in Virginia, Minnesota. I was born on the range but grew up with my adopted family twenty-five miles north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota. When I turned 18, I moved out to try and reconnect with my biological family. I am a just a girl trying to make a life on my own… creating the next part of my story. 

I have a little brother who was born on September 12, 2004. His name is Zachery Garshwiler Hays but his birth name was Zachery Stephen Olson. At this moment he is still under the care of our adopted parents John and Julie Holiday Hays. He moved out to a shelter three months ago in Grand Rapids Minnesota. They could not give him the attention he needs as he is transitioning to a young adult. Zach is a seventeen year old sophomore learning how to live amongst society. He loves playing basketball and exploring new areas. Even though he struggles with reading social cues do to his early childhood. 

When he was four we were taken from our home and family, tossed around from place to place. Out of the two and a half years living through the system, we were separated for one year of it. With that and the fact that we only had each other now, this was some of the most painful times. He stopped talking and just relied on his screams and abusive behavior to speak his words. He never was able to put feelings into words like I learned to do. This made it hard on the foster parents so he moved more often then I did. When he was just about to turn seven and I nine, we were adopted on August 11, 2011 in Itasca County. 

In that time prior he had moved six different foster cares, two shelters, and a facility. I had moved from a shelter, three foster homes, three schools, and every other weekend an another temporary respite foster home. These were the places we would sometimes see each other during the year we were separated before I moved into the foster home that he was living at in Duluth, Minnesota. 

Many do not know the mental health that thrives on the broken lost souls. When asked about my adoption, it’s not something I am scared to talk about but there’s more pain and anger buried deep down that will never show. We can not count how many times we started to feel safe again only to be moved to a whole new family, school, and life. Each time being told “this is your new home and life.” 

Many do not understand or can comprehend what goes through my mind at full speed making it hard to at all feel someone actually cares what I have to say. I like to think that I am not a burden but growing up in a church, learned very quick that people don’t really understand and they never will. So hopefully through this blog, those who want to know me and feel some kind of knowledge on what it truly feels like to be a lost soul.

 



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