8-Year-Old Adopted After 1,553 Days in Foster Care, and Hundreds Gather to Celebrate in Courtroom

After spending nearly four years, 1,553 days to be exact, in foster care, an 8-year-old little boy from McKinney, Texas, was finally adopted. Hundreds of people, including Batman, attended the joyful ceremony in the courtroom. His former foster parents, now his adoptive forever family, said they couldn’t be happier with how the long journey finally ended.

Kristy and David Schwartz have been fostering children for 11 years. The family has two other daughters; one is biological, and the younger one is adopted. They said they weren’t planning on taking on any more children at the time in May 2016, but then they heard about 4-year-old Nike, who was in need of a place to live.

“We got a call asking to take him in, and we said yes, and he showed up at our door at midnight,” Kristy Schwartz recalled, according to Good Morning America.

On Monday, Feb. 17, nearly four years after Nike first entered the Schwartz household, the most heartwarming adoption ceremony happened. Hundreds of people went to celebrate the happy event.

Amongst those present were members of his sisters’ cheerleading squad, his school friends, church members, and staff from the Buckner Foster Care and Adoption organization. The Dallas Cowboys, Nike’s favorite football team, even sent him a football signed by his favorite player. To mark the wonderful occasion, the family wore customized T-shirts that read “May the Schwartz be with you,” CBS Local Reported.

The family believed the day itself couldn’t have gone any better. “It was just overwhelming. I can’t think of a better word for it,” said Schwartz. “It was unbelievable to see everyone who came out and supported our family and who have supported us through all of this.”

The road to adoption wasn’t an easy one for the family. Nike’s biological parents had their parental rights terminated in 2017, yet legal appeals from the former guardians drew out the process over years. Only at the end of 2019 did the couple finally learn that a date for the adoption had been set.

“We talked about it so much, and the timing of it was out of our control so he couldn’t believe that it was finally happening,” Schwartz said.

Supporting the Schwartzes through their journey was Buckner International, a Christian foster and adoption group.

“We were blessed to walk hand in hand with the Schwartz family during the process of adoption,” the program director, Andi Harrison, told Fox News. “Nike is loved so much, as evidenced by the 300 friends and family who came to his adoption. He truly completes the family.”

Harrison also wanted to highlight the need for foster parents across the state and country to provide children like Nike a chance at a better future. He told Fox News that there are about 440,000 children in the United States currently in foster care, with 30,000 in Texas alone.

“There is a desperate need for homes for children who are over 8-years-old, for larger sibling groups and for children with bigger needs,” he added. “We are desperately looking for additional foster care parents that will not only provide short-term care but long-term care.”