Meet the Green Family!
Our foster care/adoption journey began in November of 2018. My husband, Golden, wasn’t initially on board to begin this journey. I asked him to just attend the classes (PATH in TN at the time). I told him that after the classes, we could decide if we felt it would be a good fit for our family. We had two adult children and two minor children in our home at the time. We completed our classes in January 2019 and we both agreed that fostering was something we were called to do.
In March of 2019, we were asked if we could take a sibling group of 6. My initial response was “No, we don’t have a car to even transport 6 children plus our two kids still living at home”. Declining a placement is so difficult when you feel you are called to foster, but you must do what is best for your family. We were approached again a month later to see if we would be willing to take in this same sibling group of six children. The children were currently in a non-adoptive foster home, and it looked as though their parents would have their rights terminated soon. Following a lot of conversations, Golden and I agreed to provide respite for this sibling group. After providing respite just one time, I was completely on board with taking the placement. I work in the education field and have spent my life managing multiple children at different levels with different needs. Golden wasn’t as quick to accept the idea of taking in six children at one time. However, after a couple of months and a few more respite visits, Golden agreed that the children should be placed with us. On July 30, 2019, we welcomed six more kids into our family.
The first year of our foster journey involved a lot of counseling appointments, court dates, medical appointments, home meetings, and many more responsibilities. We knew we were helping to change the lives of these children, so we saw no reason to complain. Even with all the required appointments, we found time to have fun through vacations, camping trips, school functions, and athletic events. These are fun memories that will last forever. We worked well with the child welfare team and after many continued court dates and lots of paperwork, we were able to adopt all six children on September 18, 2020.
In taking this placement and eventually adopting the children, we were able to keep a sibling set of six children ranging in age from 9-15 together. We have many memories since we brought the children into our home, but I would have to say one of my favorite memories, which is now a tradition for all the siblings (10) and grandchildren (4), is that we draw names for Christmas. Everybody gets to spend $10-15 on the name they draw. The children love trying to find the perfect gift. It is so much fun to watch them really work hard on picking the perfect gift for the family member they pulled. We work hard teaching them about giving because giving and loving will bring them more happiness in life. Almost all of the children are in extracurricular activities and we make sure we go as a family to support one another whether it is a game or a concert.
Fostering can be very challenging, but the rewards outweigh the trials. In the end, they are just kids wanting to be kids and have a forever family. Adopting a sibling group of six has brought chaos and lots of noise, but it has brought us 6 more children to love and allows six children the ability to feel safe and secure and never question where “Home” is.
We support the breaking down of barriers to interstate adoptions. I see too many children being stuck in foster care when willing, capable family members in other states are wanting to take them in. We all know that family is important, but it seems the lack of communication, urgency and policy prevent this from happening in a timely manner. Being a public-school administrator, I see it often. We also support making the adoption tax credit refundable. Although we would not likely benefit from all the Tax Credit received from adopting 6 children, It would be very beneficial if we could get a portion of that refunded.
So, let me introduce you to our village. Golden and I are proud parents to 10 children. Ages: 25, 23, 16, 15, 14, 14, 13, 12, 10, and 9. We also have four grandchildren. Ages: 5, 2, 1, and one due Nov.2021.
