Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Your warm-and-fuzzy story of the week

 

Here's a wonderful example of a generous, loving family.  The report is from 2019, but that doesn't diminish its impact.


A set of seven brothers and sisters were just adopted together after being separated for over a year in foster care.

Emerson, 12, Autumn, 11, Jaxon, 9, Journey, 8, Jace, 7, Piper, 5, and Sawyer, 3, found their forever home on Wednesday thanks to their new adoptive parents , Lisa and Gary Fulbright.

"Everyone was ecstatic, it was a full courtroom," Lisa Fulbright of Derby, Kansas, told "Good Morning America," about the adoption day. "Autumn, she woke up this morning, stretched and her first words were, 'I'm adopted!'"

Lisa and Gary Fulbright already had a combined seven children from their previous marriages. The couple also share a biological son together, Logan, 17.

Siblings Piper, 5 and Sawyer, 3, got their forever home on Wednesday thanks to their new parents, Lisa and Gary Fulbright of Derby, Kan.

Since all of their children except Logan had moved out, the Fulbrights decided to become foster parents. Three years ago, they adopted a pair of siblings -- Hannah, 10, and Levi, 8.

Then, in Feb. 2017, three brothers, Jaxon, Journey and Jace, came into their care. The Fulbrights would often invite their other siblings over for holidays so that Emerson, Autumn, Jaxon, Journey, Jace, Piper and Sawyer could all be together.

June of that same year, Emerson and Autumn joined their brothers at the Fulbright's home. Piper and Sawyer followed in February 2018.

Emerson, 12, Autumn, 11, Jaxon, 9, Journey, 8, Jace, 7, Piper, 5 and Sawyer 3, had been in foster care in the state of Kansas for 734 days.

Lisa Fulbright said she and her husband fell in love with all seven kids, who came from a neglectful family and were into care by the state of Kansas. Saint Francis Ministries, an organization that provides foster care and adoption services to children in state custody, asked the Fulbrights if they would consider adopting all of the siblings.

. . .

The Fulbrights immediately agreed to adopt the children, and on April 10, they made it official at the Juvenile District Court in Wichita. The family even worse custom jerseys to honor their favorite football team, the Kansas City Chiefs.

. . .

Lisa Fulbright said all seven of her children are kind-hearted and a whole lot of fun.

"It's kind of chaos but it's a fun type of chaos because we just love them," she added.


There's more at the link, including photographs.

In this day and age, when so much pressure is being exerted on and against traditional families, it's heartwarming to see a couple care so much about keeping siblings together that they expanded their family to include them.  There are few who'd have been willing to take on that responsibility - or so many extra kids!  Kudos to them, and to the agencies that made the arrangements.

We need more families like this.

Peter


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately, from my experience the system doesn’t want foster parents.

Before we had our own kids we decided to become foster parents. My wife’s parents had been foster parents in Michigan and one of them is considered part of the family still, 50 years later.

We spent 2 years jumping through all the hoops of classes and background checks and never heard anything after that. Neither of us had so much as a traffic ticket.