Children who are left in child supportive services have a rough time.
While the people running foster homes are often doing the best they can in a hard situation, the children who are left in these living situations are often the ones who suffer. While they get whatever care they need in the home, getting adopted or finding a permanent placement can be difficult—though it’s made even more difficult when you have siblings. If you have one brother or sister, there’s a moderate chance that you could end up in the same place together.
But what about if you have more siblings than that?
For Michael, Jess, Camden and Elijah, the chances that they would all stay together through the foster care process seemed very slim.
Michael, Jess and Camden were six, five and four, respectively, whereas their littlest brother, Elijah, was only 17 months old. To make matters even more difficult, Jess was also suffering from cerebral palsy and needed additional love and support. Still, a miracle came when Georgia residents Julia and B.J. Washington decided they wanted to adopt them, even though they already had two children of their own.
Still, once the Washingtons saw the commitment they were taking on, they knew they would have to get creative.
Though the family was prepared to adopt, they were concerned that all the children wouldn’t get the care they needed.
As Julia told ABC News:
“We knew that to go from two to five children, and then one that has major special needs, that somebody was going to suffer . . . [but] if we didn’t adopt him, he’d be over 1,000 miles away.”
Still, the Washingtons had an unusual idea to fix the problem.
Instead of giving up, Julia decided to ask her neighbors for help.
Living next door to the Washingtons are Jay and George Houston. After explaining the entire adoption situation, Julia had a pretty serious favor to ask her friend Jay: would she and her husband consider adopting Elijah so that all four boys could stay together?
Fortunately, the Houstons said yes.
Now, all four boys live right next door to one another!
Thanks to the friendship and understanding between these two women, these four boys will get to keep having adventures together and never be separated. According to Jay Houston, the entire process has been a blessing:
“Kids in foster care come with such a negative stigma attached to them . . . These kids are kids and they just need love and I can’t explain how much these kids have changed my life. My husband and I are the lucky ones.”
Congratulations to everyone who helped this dream come true!
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