“We had been so careful. We had all the right rules in place. But he’d been taught too well. Steve, a child trapped in a man’s body, was just as much a victim.”
‘CPS swooped in and out. I am now mother to both victims. We are going to fight for them.’: Family adopts 2 children, ‘We’re standing up for our kids’
‘You’re too young to foster a teen.’ Everyone around us told us to say no. We already had 5 little kids.’: Foster mom says ‘every kid deserves to know they are loved’
“My 11-year-old son with autism said to her, ‘Will you remember me when you leave? I don’t want you to forget me. I won’t have anyone to play with at school.’ He told her he loved her. It isn’t easy. Sometimes it seems like the trauma won. But she will never have too much ‘baggage’ to be loved. I’m so glad we said YES.”
‘We’ve dealt with lice, super lice, lies, fighting, suspension, sexting, smoking, vaping, and drugs. It wasn’t our plan, but God had other plans.’: After infertility, mom fosters 10 kids
“I remember yelling at God in my minivan after another depressing doctor’s appointment. This wasn’t our plan. ‘Are you going to take me?’ His room was concrete blocks, no outlets, and a window so high you couldn’t see out.”
‘We should have a bio child first.’ The fetus grew into a tumor. We were discouraged from fostering.’: Woman with Gestational Trophoblastic Disease fosters son, ‘You can change the world’
“Only one mother showed up at ‘Family Day.’ It broke my heart. Our friends and family discouraged us from moving forward. All I could think about was how Alex didn’t have a choice.”
‘Do you want my boys? We don’t want them anymore.’ They were broken. We were at a crossroad.’: Mom adopts teenage twins, one with brain tumor, ‘We are still here as a family‘
“Tears would well up in Victor’s eyes. ‘Why didn’t she love me?’ Those days were over. ‘Mom? If I’m being admitted, it means I have to stay here, right?’ I said, ‘Then that means I’m staying here too.’ We were going to pick up the pieces.”
‘This isn’t the place for me. I just don’t fit in.’ He didn’t want to be adopted. We were broken.’: After foster heartbreak, couple adopt teenage boy, ‘He was given to us in our most desperate hour’
“’I just don’t fit here.’ He didn’t feel like he was good enough for us. We felt the weight during the entire process of trying to hold it all together. We questioned if we EVER wanted to be parents. I asked Joel, ‘Do you want to hear about another kid?’ He nodded. ‘Yes.’”
‘Have a good day, darling. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.’ This child was 14 and not ‘technically’ my child.’: LGBTQ couple says fostering teenage daughter has been ‘WILD and magical’
“I cheerfully shouted after her, perhaps a little too loudly. ‘Will she get teased because her parents are gay?’ My heart broke to see her so anxious. ‘Will she be bullied?’ But unlike many mothers on their child’s first day of school, this child was 14 years old, and she’s not ‘technically’ my child. I am not ashamed to say I got back to my car and absolutely sobbed.”
‘My youngest was called the n-word in kindergarten. He’s been told his skin is the color of poop. Someone yelled a racial epithet at us from a truck.’: Adoptive mom addresses the ‘wide mouthed, gaping stares’ her mixed-race family gets from strangers
“Raising a child of a different race was overwhelming. I hate to even admit how I once accidentally shaved his toddler head bald before desperately seeking out a Black barber. But slowly, we learned what products worked on his skin and hair. We stepped out of our comfort zone. When I share how I have two 20-year-old’s and a 10-year-old, people ask if the 20-year-old’s are twins, or they comment on the age gap. I know my older two keep things from me. I worry about the safety of all three of them.”
‘You are GOOD FOR NOTHING!’ I sat in the bathroom, crying, asking, ‘Please, send me a new dad. Please!’: Young man creates his own adopted ‘family’ after surviving traumatic childhood, ‘We may not have the same bloodline, but they gave me life’
“My dad was the disciplinarian at home. DO NOT MAKE DAD ANGRY. I don’t remember hearing ‘I love you.’ From my dad. Ever. He was brought up in the traditional ‘macho’ way. He’d constantly tell me, ‘I had it MUCH worse than you growing up!’ But then something really weird began to happen at school – it made me feel warm and fuzzy. I was validated and encouraged by teachers. Wait, what? A hurricane of hormones was wreaking havoc on me. I was an angry teen who needed to fill the hole in my heart.”
‘I’m not going to sugar coat it. His file is so big, no one will even look at it anymore.’ He was pencil thin, eyes sunken so deep. He was ours.’: Couple adopts 16-year-old runaway after his birth mom called police on him, ‘His story didn’t end how the world told him it would’
“She was dancing around the facts, and we could tell. She wanted to see if we would scare. He’d run from his previous placement, was failing all of his classes. She had no other place to turn. We asked to FaceTime him. We saw the emptiness in his eyes and the face of a kid who didn’t even know what hope was. He couldn’t make eye contact. His skin was covered with sores, his hands curled and tremored. He was 15. He was ours. He told us the drugs he’d done, the girls he’d been with, and the things he’d seen, and I couldn’t help but see the beginnings of a boy who would leave that past behind.”
