The Heartbreaking Reason This Colorado Teen Posted an Ad to Craigslist

Balloons, cake, presents, and singing are all of the things that come to mind when your birthday is rolling around. For one Colorado teen, none of those things come to mind — instead, she prefers to sleep her birthday off — because she doesn't have a family to celebrate with.

Natalie Carson, 19, has always dreaded her birthday — she aged out of foster care at 18 without being adopted, leaving her alone to celebrate holidays and other special occasions. Rather than celebrate another birthday in bed, wishing for it to be over, Natalie decided that this year she would try to find a family to "rent" for her big day, so that she could finally have a good birthday.

She placed an ad on Craigslist offering to pay a family $8 an hour to spend her birthday with her, which read, "I just want one day that I can feel important and special . . . and like I matter even if I really don't." Natalie didn't expect the overwhelming response — tons of emails with offers to make her birthday a special day — and is not only talking to a few families that she may potentially spend her birthday with, but is asking some of the people who have reached out if they would consider supporting other foster care children or organizations that aid foster kids.

She told Yahoo Parenting, "It makes me feel really good. Now I feel more hopeful about my birthday and more happy. I feel a bit bad too, though, in a way, because I'll be 40 before I can celebrate my birthday with all of these people. I want to be like, 'Will you be willing to wait until I'm 40?'" Natalie's birthday is June 10, and it seems like it could be the first of many amazing birthday celebrations to come.