Estefanie is someone who always knew she wanted to adopt. Since she was a child, she knew it was the path she would take to have kids. Her fostering and adopting story began officially in 2018, when she became licensed to adopt.

After being approved and licensed, Estefanie and her partner fostered their daughter and ended up adopting her on May 22, 2019. They adopted a second child, their son, almost exactly one year after, on May 21, 2020.

Their Steps to Becoming a Forever Family

Estefanie was working as a nurse at a school when she met her daughter.

That’s how I grew to know and fall in love with her. She told me she was in foster care and was soon moving to be with a new family. She asked if I could be her mom (she didn’t know we were trying to adopt at the time). That same day I contacted our social worker and she moved in the following week!

They had a unique, strong connection from the start and knew they wanted to be closer and become a family.

For their son, they meet him upon arrival. After receiving the call regarding his need for placement, he moved in less than 24 hours and they adopted him 4 months later!

A Forever Family With Lots of Love

We asked about Estefanie’s experience throughout the process. She answered,

The best experience through this adoption process is how much our definition of love has been challenged. Love isn’t just about the fun days and happy memories, it’s about loving through the hard times and the times when you feel like giving up. Having kids (especially with trauma) is not for the faint of heart!

They went from being a single military family who deployed often to deciding to leave the Air Force and remain as a family together every day.

Wise Advice

Estefanie’s advice to anyone seeking to foster or adopt is that “every child out there would love to be loved by a family like yours! It’s worth it! Find your village and love those kids!”

Thank you, Estefanie, for your wonderful story about going from a military family, to foster family, to forever family. If you are looking to foster or adopt, check out these resources!