Adoption Month: Hear from a local family!

In honor of adoption month, we have teamed up with Southern Christian Services to bring you incredible stories from around the Coast!

Hope and her husband, Vance became foster parents in 2019. This is their story ⬇️

We had one biological son who was 2 at the time. We had always talked about adopting one day and figured it would be easier to start the process while we only had one other child at home. Since then, we have had 7 children in our home including short term respite placements and our daughter Keera.

On September 27, 2022 I got a message from a social worker asking if we could provide respite (short term care) for a 16 year old girl for one week to give them time to find a long term solution for her. I agreed and this was the first day I met our daughter.

My husband was in Colorado and he did not get home until a few days later. But that’s all it took! A few days together and we knew this was meant to be.

By the weekend, we were scrambling trying to figure out if she could stay. With the tremendous help and support of Southern Christian Services, they came to a conclusion with the county that she could stay in our home. We were now the proud parents of a six year old and a 16 year old. Approximately two weeks later, I found out I was pregnant with our second biological son. Our family was growing very quickly and in a way we never would have expected but we were grateful for it all.

One of our favorite parts about the adoption process is seeing a lot of her “firsts”. We got her ready for her first high school homecoming dance, sat next to her on her first flight, and took pictures with her on her first trip to Disney World!

One of our biggest fears when we first started considering foster care/adoption was one I think all parents would have.

“How would this affect our biological child? What will we be exposing them to?”

And honestly you won’t get all of the answers. But when we compared our fear of “what ifs” to the actual kids needing homes we knew we had to try. In the end, I believe our son was affected in a positive way. Adoption has taught him to be more thoughtful, patient, and open-minded to other children around him.

One thing I would tell families considering adoption would be, not to wait for the perfect timing because there isn’t one. These kids, especially teenagers, can’t afford for you to wait until you have a bigger house, a perfect job, or no longer have small children at home.

More than anything, they just need families who will meet them where they are and show up for them.