Today we are happy to share a story of a beautiful and inspiring foster care adoption story, one that was many years in the making.

You may remember a little boy, Christopher, from features on our website, social media, and KDSK’s “A Place to Call Home”. Christopher, along with his brother and sister, had come into care in 2014. Because of the trauma he had experience prior to coming into care, he needed a lot of nurturing and attention to heal. For most of the time that he was in foster care, he had been separated from his siblings, due to his unique special needs.

In the four years that Christopher was in foster care, he was in four different placements. One included a pre-adoptive kinship home that failed because of a provider’s health issues. However, Christopher’s time in foster care allowed him to heal and grow. He was able to be connected with excellent medical care and see various specialists to become physically healthy, and was fitted with hearing aids and glasses. His dedicated case managers, Ericka and Megan, advocated extensively for Christopher to make sure he was well cared for.

His team started looking for a forever family for Christopher in 2014, using social media, websites, Extreme Recruitment, and “A Place to Call Home” on KSDK. His team looked at family and kinship options for placement. Finally, after years of searching for a forever family for Christopher, a family in Georgia saw his photo on an adoption website. In February of 2018, they were selected as his adoptive family!

Jennifer and Tommy started visiting Christopher in Missouri, and soon he was making trips to their home in Georgia as well. In July of 2018, Christopher moved into their home. Jennifer and Tommy have gone above and beyond to make sure that Christopher is healthy and happy. They have restructured their home to meet his sensory needs so that Christopher has areas he is able to touch and play with anything he likes. He is happier than ever, and his new parents provide him with so much attention, love, and care. The family even plans to keep Christopher in contact with his siblings because they know how important a sibling bond is.

Jennifer and Tommy describe adopting Christopher as “a lifelong dream come true”. When his adoption was finalized in late 2018, Jennifer and Tommy made the meaningful decision to legally change Christopher’s first name to Isaac. They wanted a special name for their son (who they still call Christopher) to reflect the story of Isaac in the Bible, the long awaited son. The name Isaac also means “laughter” – and anyone who has been around Christopher knows that he is always laughing. Jennifer and Tommy remark that Christopher is “an awesome little boy” and that they are “super happy to have him as our son!”

Congratulations to Christopher, Jennifer, and Tommy on the finalization of their family’s adoption! We are so thankful for all of the case managers and team members who have worked so hard to make Christopher’s forever family possible.