Siblings In Foster Care Feel Like No Family Is Going To Take Them In

Nov 05, 2020 by apost team

Foster care has its challenges for the kids. It is especially difficult when you keep moving from home to home. Back in 2017, two siblings, then 12-year-old Ray and his 14-year-old older sister, Nichole, had already waited for over three years for a family to adopt them and had even been separated at some point. By the time a local news channel highlighted their plight, they had given up on ever finding a home. Thanks to the feature on the news channel, things changed for them as they finally found a family to adopt them.

Hope is a very strong thing, and when you lose it, life can become extremely meaningless. Children in foster care often rely on hope to keep them going. The hope that someday they may become part of a caring family gives them the strength for each new day. What happens when you never seem to be getting the opportunities for adoption? That was the situation two siblings found themselves in, though after sharing their fears, they eventually were adopted into a family.

When looking for opportunities, you may need a little help from someone well placed to help you get a chance. For the two siblings, their help came in the form of a local news channel in Utah that had a segment that featured children in foster care in the hope of helping get adopting families. KSL News’ “Wednesday’s Child” featured the two siblings in June 2017. In the feature, the children gave their story and their fear of never finding a family to adopt them.

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During the feature, Ray, 12, and Nichole, 14, were going to a ballpark for batting practice. Although it is not what Nichole loves, she enjoys being there for her brother, who loves sports. The two children love each other with Ray indicating that separation would affect him so much. He told KSL News that Nichole is always there to talk to him whenever he is bored. All he needs to do is go to her room and after talking to her, he always feels better.

At the time the two children had the interview, they still were going through the trauma of going into foster care. As Ray revealed, he initially thought they were going to an event and would only be there for a couple of days. It took time before she realized they were in foster care. Since then, the two siblings had switched houses several times. While Ray seemed resigned to their fate, Nichole still found their circumstances hard to take in. She easily became nervous at the mention of foster care.

Sometimes when we wait for something for too long, we end up losing hope. The siblings were running out of hope when the channel aired their story. They had already been in foster care for three years. They had already started giving up on ever finding a home. Nichole told KSL News she didn’t believe they would ever find a home at the time. The three years had sucked all the hope out of them. The 14-year old was already resigned to a life in foster care, which she did not enjoy a bit.

Separation can be devastating. It is even worse for children going into foster care. When they get separated and find themselves with strangers, their social behavior can easily change drastically. For Nichole and Ray, they wished to stay together. They hoped that they would find a family to adopt both of them so they do not go through a separation. However, they both understood it was not up to them. Ray recalls how he felt tortured when they were separated in the past. He had no one to talk to and that broke his heart.

Speaking about what they wished for, Ray told KSL News that they needed someone caring and loving. His emphasis on someone loving and caring suggested that that was what they had missed a lot during their time in foster care.

Their interview had a positive impact. The story had touched many viewers, and it was such a relief when there was some development as per an update in November 2018. Having initially had challenges on getting families to adopt children from foster care, the Utah Adoption agency handling Ray and Nichole found a way to solve the problem. They came up with a brilliant idea that would help people see the children that needed adoption, especially those that are easy to overlook due to their age.

The “Utah Heart Gallery” by the Utah Adoption Exchange created an exhibition of 31 portraits of the children available for adoption. The agency then moved the gallery around the state so that people can see the children that need homes with stable environments to grow. The aim was to touch people and spurring them to adopt some of the kids. Ray and Nichole were part of the exhibition.

Kathy Searle, the director of programs at the Utah Adoption Exchange told KSL News the portraits gave people the opportunity to see the children as “more than a number.” She said the kids had been through a lot and deserved a family. Thanks to the exhibit, Nichole and Ray found a home. They were both taken into the same family. Ray had some words of encouragement for other children going through the same experience he went through. As KSL News reported, he urged them to keep hope, as things happen for a reason.

Ray and Nichole's story is a great inspiration to children in foster care who may have given up on adoption. It gives hope to many that are in the system and inspires people to adopt. What did you think of this story? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to share this with your friends so they too can be inspired.