Longest-waiting child in Arkansas foster care system finds forever family

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. ( KARK ) – The long-awaited journey for 17-year-old Jose to find his forever family has now come to an end.

Cheering and crying filled the Ninth West Judicial Circuit Court and the Arkansas Department of Human Services conference room on Thursday as the judge declared Jose was now adopted, 6,183 days after entering Arkansas' foster care system.

Jose suffered from shaken baby syndrome at the hands of a caretaker when he was just a baby, according to Project Zero , a non-profit coalition of adoption officials in Arkansas that aims to "deliberately and purposefully pursue out-of-the-box ways to find forever families for kids in foster care who are waiting."

His birth family took him to a care facility for the 24-hour care that he needed. When Jose was just 1 year old, his family gradually abandoned him, which is when the state's foster care stepped in.

His life began to change when Dr. Mary Zhang stepped in.

"When I first visited, my intention was to be an advocate for him, medically speaking," Dr. Zhang told Project Zero in a video shared with Nexstar's KARK.

Jose suffered severe brain damage, is mostly paralyzed, is verbally and visually impaired, and requires a feeding tube, common symptoms of shaken baby syndrome, which is why Zhang was introduced.

"As we visited him more and more, we just knew that we wanted him a part of our family," Zhang said.

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Zhang shared with her husband her calling to adopt.

"You know, you had kind of gotten to where he needs someone and I was like, 'Let's do it,'" Patrick Sullivan told Project Zero.

"He's lived his entire life in a facility like I mean how do you," Zhang said.

Zhang and Sullivan said Jose was an answered prayer.

"We want to be his support system, we want to be just a constant presence in his life, we want to pray over him all the time consistently, and we just want to try to do everything that we know that Jesus would do," Zhang explained.

Thursday, under oath, Zhang and Sullivan declared their intentions to the judge to adopt Jose, and it was granted.

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After nearly 17 years in the foster care system, Jose now has a family.

"When we look into his eyes and rub his face, he knows that we love him," Zhang said.

Jose will remain in the facility to get the care that he needs, according to Project Zero. However, moving forward, it will be with the support and daily, loving visits from his new mom and dad.