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.
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.
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.
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.”
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