Fostering children to adopt can be a long process. Most importantly, with 1,200 children entering the foster care system every day, the need for foster and adoptive parents is enormous.

Sarah is a mother and adoption advocate. Her drive stems from a desire to be a part of the solution by bringing stability to children. When it came to fostering, Sarah and her family did not hesitate. This week, Sarah shares her journey of fostering children to adopt with Foster Love - Together We Rise.

A Commitment to Love

Sarah and her family opened their home and took in two foster placements who were four and seventeen months at the time. Her intentions to foster with the purpose of reunification came to a standstill with one call.  Subsequently, the children’s social worker phoned to let Sarah know that the reunification with the biological family was not possible.

Sarah states, “We knew that if reunification didn’t work out, we would like to adopt them.” With that, Sarah’s foster to adopt journey began. In November 2015, Sarah expanded her forever family.

In October of 2015, Sarah and her family finalized the adoption paperwork. The children’s social worker asked if Sarah’s family would consider fostering any future children birthed by their kid’s biological mother. With absolute confidence, Sarah and her husband checked “yes.”

Soon, Sarah and her husband got the news that their kid’s biological mother was pregnant. “On February 1st, marked the birth of our youngest Mattias. We started fostering him immediately after birth. He was in the neonatal intensive care unit for two weeks and we would drive to see him every day to hold him and start our bonding process. On Valentines Day, we brought him home and called him our Valentines gift. We didn’t know it but he completed our family and is a love bug.”

Words of Encouragement

Lastly, for those interested in fostering Sarah shares her insight.“Truth is we are normal people just like everyone else who felt lead to adopt and be a part of a solution and offer stability to our children. We did not wait around until things were perfect or we had more money in the bank. We got to start, move forward and everything fell into place. I would also say to future adoptive parents that it’s okay to honor your children’s birth family too. Our boys Mom gave us such a wonderful gift that can not be replaced.”

In conclusion, we’d like to thank Sarah for sharing her story with us. If you are in the process of fostering to adopt, we’d like to help you photograph your adoption day. Check out our Framing Forever program for more information. https://www.togetherwerise.org/framing-forever/