"Love is what children need": Lena's Foster to Adoption Story

By: Lena Samuelson
Centennial, CO

Thankfully, we had a wonderful experience through our agency. We were told over and over again that as two moms, the case managers, caseworkers, and GALs all supported us as an extra nurturing home for children who need an abundance of it. 

 Our story couldn’t be more successful. We were matched with the first child we were sent a referral for. He was not even two yet, and the second day he met us, he called us Mama with outstretched arms. He moved in with us after a 6-day transition, because he knew we loved him from the start, and he felt it, and it made him feel comfortable and safe. We were his fourth caregiver before he turned two. 

His full blood baby brother was born a few months later, and they removed him from the hospital at three-days-old and brought him to us with 16 hours notice. The boys both had drug exposure in utero. They have also been absolutely brilliant, loving, and good ever since the first day we met each of them. 

Now three and five, they have long since been securely adopted by us, they are attached, smart, creative, and we are a very happy family. We are very involved parents who participate in their lives daily. We are not religious ourselves, but the boys are exposed to all four sets of grandparents that are. 

Love is what children need. They don’t need perfection or someone’s idea of appropriate. They don’t require two parents, both sexes as parents, or religious parents. They need someone who loves them and provides them guidance in right and wrong. Religion does not have a monopoly on that.  

Children in the foster care system need someone to love and care for them. As long as the person is safe, responsible and can provide appropriate care, nothing else matters. Making a child wait to be adopted because the pool of adoptive parents is limited to only certain religions or family types is morally and ethically wrong.