12 Adoption Day Stories From Foster Care, Including a Sign That Said 3,707 Days

“We have finalized the adoption of our foster kids!”

Almost exactly a year ago my wife and I finished our foster parenting certifications. The day the certificate came in the mail was the day we got the email about a brother and sister up for permanent placement or adoption.

S was five at the time. It’s our first night with them in our home during a weekend visit. My wife and I had introduced ourselves by name, but from the moment we met them they called us mom and dad.

That night, I’m laying down reading him a bedtime story, he curls up laying his head on my heart.

“Dad, can we stay here forever?” he asks..

“Well sure, what about school and your friends back in (other town about an hour away)?” I ask.

“....well, we could go to school here... and make new friends! Right dad?!” He says hopefully.

“Well, let’s see if we can make that happen.” I say as I give him a hug and a kiss.

K was six at the time. She’d been in her room quiet for awhile but came over to me out of the blue, looks up at me with a sheepish grin, and places a folded up note in my hand.

I open it, inside she’s written “Plez Luve Me.”

I look down and she’s holding back a huge smile as best she can.

I get down on a knee and give her a hug, “you’ll always be loved, K.” I say.

“Ivey Zezulka’s foster parents Paige and Daniel surprised her with the news that they had finalized plans to adopt Ivey and her biological siblings.”

“We adopted our foster son today. The Honorable Judge Iron Man presiding.”

It’s National Adoption Month, and today was this particular court’s Adoption Day. Everyone involved was dressed as superheroes, even the paintings of former judges outside the court rooms had superhero masks put over the faces.

Between my grandparents, and my wife’s parents six children were adopted. It meant so much to us to be able to do the same for our new son.

“After a total of more than ten years in care, we have an adoption date for our son”

“Our photo from the day we got forever with our son!”

He lived with us for a little over a year prior to adoption.

Our son helped design his sign. It was his choice to have it and he still keeps it hung over his bed. He is proud of everything he has overcome to be where he is now.

“After 664 days of foster care, I’ve been promoted from ‘foster dad’ to Plain Ol’ Dad.”

My son has been with me and my wife since November, 2023, and yesterday we finalized his adoption. It’s been a long road, and fostering has been the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I wouldn’t change a second of it for anything in the world.

Our guy came to live with us when he was 4 (6 now) and we’ve always let things proceed at his pace. About a month in I went to his pre-k for some holiday party or something, and to keep all the kids from rushing up at once, the teacher said “okay. If your dad is here, come up first” and he didn’t look at me, didn’t hesitate, didn’t seem to think about it, he just jumped up and went for it. That moment will stay with me forever. That was the first time I really felt like dad (I didn’t cry in a room full of pre-schoolers, I promise).

And I absolutely cried in a room full of pre-schoolers when he stood up that day ❤️

“Michael Clark Jr. had crowd of supporters at his adoption hearing this week, which included his kindergarten classmates from Wealthy Elementary in East Grand Rapids.”

“The Adoption is final! Welcome home baby girl, welcome to forever!”

We’re very happy to have it all be official. She’s been with us in foster care for 2 years, since she was 3 days old, and to have this new chapter finally start... man. I’m so happy.

Our judge was fully crying. She brought a little poem to read at the ceremony (as well as donuts for us and a toy for our daughter) and halfway through she started bawling. And then, well, if she was crying imagine how all of us were doing

“in 4 days I will officially be Adopted!!!! YESS!”

My (for now) foster mom just told me that our court date is soon, and I will soon be legally adopted! IM crying happy tears so hard right now!! im sitting here with my (for now) foster sister and im so happy that we will soon be true sisters!!! I am sooooo happy!!!!!! In a few days I will have a REAL sister and mom and dad and dog!!!!! OMG im so excited! After a whole life of being in foster care, I am going to have a real family!! YAYY!! WHOOHOO!

I am very excited about the dog because I love German Shepherds a lot!

4 days is gonna seem like 20 years...

“Josie spent most of her life in foster care. Today she is adopted and with her forever family.”

“Today it’s official, after 1020 days in the foster care system, he’s officially adopted and I can join the club! So proud of this wonderful kid.”

Being his father is all I want to do in my life and that doesn’t feel courageous it feels selfish in a certain way. It’s hard to explain, but since the day I met him that’s all I wanted to do was be his father. He had a great foster home that he was in from birth to the time he was placed with us as his foster parents with intent to adopt.

It was an entire Lorenzo day! We went to the museum and ate noodles and jumped on the trampoline.

“We finally got to adopt our little man! We’ve been his foster parents since he was born (we brought him home from the hospital), and it’s so surreal that we’re official now.”

“Ten years ago, we adopted a boy from foster care. He turns 18 today.”

My wife teaches second grade at a public school here in Delaware, and one year, halfway through the school year, a boy was placed in her class. At this point, he spent most of his life bouncing from one foster home to another.

That following summer, as my wife and I were driving somewhere, she started telling me that she received a call from the school secretary, saying that little boy was going back into the system.

So I started thinking — We had a three-bedroom house, no kids, a half-acre yard, a big, dumb dog — So I said, “Why don’t we take him?”

My wife said, “Good. They’re coming tomorrow.”

After two weeks of inspections, classes and background checks, he was delivered to our door, holding a half-filled garbage bag containing everything he owned.

He was our foster son for six months until we officially adopted him six months later, after the mandatory waiting period.

Now he’s 18, a senior in high school, and all he wants for his birthday are subwoofers for his old pickup.