Former Wednesday Child finds success, searches for closure

During weekly Wednesday's Child segments, CBS News Colorado profiles children living in foster care who are eligible for adoption. It's always so interesting to find out what happens to children who are featured on Wednesday's Child. There are a wide variety of outcomes for children in foster care, everything from finding permanency to aging out of the system alone.

Kevin Tydlaska-Dziedzic reached out to CBS News Colorado to get a copy of his Wednesday's Child segment. 

CBS News Colorado Wednesday's Child reporter Mekialaya White met with him and his husband, Brandon, when they were working in Denver. 

"Out of my entire journey like that was the moment that I felt seen," Tydlaska-Dziedzic explained. 

Tydlaska-Dziedzic appeared on Wednesday's Child in 1996 when he was 10-years-old. He was profiled in a news story with CBS News Colorado anchor Bill Stuart. 

"I think it was the first time that it gave me a voice, right so, when you're in foster care and you're going through that process, people speak for you...a lot," Tydlaska-Dziedzic said. 

After years in the system, the TV story worked, he was matched with a family. 

"I spent a few months with them, but I made them realize that they wanted a baby," Tydlaska-Dziedzic said. 

He went back into foster care, but soon was matched with another family and got adopted. 

"Now my adoption did carry me until I was 18, but that family unit broke down when I was a sophomore in high school, so that parents ended up getting divorced," he remembered. 

Tydlaska-Dziedzic faced all of the challenges that so many foster care teens face; finding housing, getting a job that pay a living wage, learning to survive without support. All while navigating the emotional fallout of a childhood full of trauma. 

"I made a choice when I was young to follow a path that I thought was more productive and was more of the human I wanted to be," he explained.

"How did you know, even at a young age, that you needed to make good choices?" White asked. 

"When I got adopted, I had one solid, great year. I got adopted and it was great," Tydlaska-Dziedzic  said. "I remember when things started to get bad, that's when I remember actively making choices."

Tydlaska-Dziedzic got a college degree in commercial photography. He's a published photographer. He's also an accomplished actor with rolls in a Hallmark movie and a Vince Vaughn flick under his belt. He and Brandon own a multi-million dollar creative and marketing agency. 

"That's why I think of the path as sort of a blessing as well. It was hard, but it made me who I am today," he said. 

It's his loving, supportive relationship with Brandon that is probably his greatest accomplishment. 

"When you're a former foster child or you've experienced a lot of trauma, your ability to trust quickly or open yourself up to people is limited," he explained. 

Tydlaska-Dziedzic  has actively opened himself to all of life's possibilities based on the lessons he learned as a young boy. 

"The biggest thing is you've got to advocate for you, typically you just don't have that, so advocate for yourself always," he told White. 

Tydlaska-Dziedzic has found great personal success, but he's still searching for resolution. 

LINK: Wednesday's Child on CBS Colorado

CBS Colorado has been telling Wednesday's Child stories with Raising the Future for four decades. You can find out more about adoption from foster care by giving them a call at (303) 755-4756 or (800) 451-5246 or go to raisethefuture.org.