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Teen posts Craigslist ad to rent a family for her birthday

Posted at 3:42 PM, Jun 02, 2015
and last updated 2015-06-02 15:42:05-04

WESTMINSTER, Colo. — She says she’s never had a birthday with her family, so she took to Craigslist in hopes of renting a family for her party.

The unusual, heartfelt message from 19-year-old Natalie Carson says in part, “I aged out of foster care and since I was never adopted, I don’t have a family to spend holiday’s or my birthday’s with.”

Natalie Carson's Craigslist Ad

Natalie Carson’s Craigslist Ad

Spending time with a family on her birthday she says would help make a usually difficult day, special.

“It’s something that I’ve never really had, of course I’ve had birthday’s but they haven’t really been good. Usually ever birthday is really painful and hard,” Natalie Carson told KMGH.

Carson was a baby when she was first placed in foster care in Colorado. She was quickly adopted and moved with her adoptive family to Georgia.

“They were abusing me and so I got placed back into foster care when I was 12,” said Natalie Carson.

At 18, she aged out of the system. She was on her own for the first time and took a bus back to Colorado.

“I really didn’t know anything but I knew I was born here,” said Natalie Carson.

Carson found support at a local homeless shelter. Carson has been able to earn her GED and is now working and attending college for computer science.

Several people have reached out to her giving Carson hope that she’ll finally have the birthday she’s always dreamed of.

“I felt like having one day of where it’s OK this about me and it’s my birthday.” said Natalie Carson.

Carson says she was inspired to post on Craigslist after she saw a girl in California write a similar ad.