GRAND RAPIDS, Mi. — Legacy Adoption Services through Samaritas is celebrating a big milestone during this National Adoption Month. In its 45 years of service, the organization has matched 10,000 children with families. It is one of the largest agencies of its kind in the state - supporting children and families through the foster and adoption process, so they have plenty of success stories.
One of them is the Trice family. Their adoption journey started four years ago, when Robert and Latricia got a call about her cousin in foster care. 3-year-old A’rayah needed a home. Robert remembers the day they picked her up, “she wasn't well taken care of and there was no eye contact and there were all of these warnings of this kid who's going to scream and do all these things and literally in my mind I’m like what are we doing? How did we put ourselves in this situation?”
It wasn't long before that toddler convinced them - they did the right thing. Soon after they brought her home, things changed. Robert says, “Her turnaround was so fast. She literally became a different kid overnight. Even her caseworker asked what are you doing with this little girl and I was like we just love her. She visited her grandfather about a week after we had her and she ran up and gave him a hug and he told me she's never done that in her whole life. I said there's nothing wrong, she just needed love. And that changed everything. So, all this fear and apprehension just goes out the door when you look at her and like this is a person that really, really needs to be loved and we have plenty of love to give.”
That’s a good thing, because a month later, A'rayah's baby sister Olivia was born. In just a few weeks, the Trice's went from one son, Caleb, to a bustling family of five. Robert came from a big family, so the full house didn't phase him. Latricia knew she wanted more children, but wasn't sure adoption was the right route. She says, "we've dealt with fertility challenges. I’ve had three miscarriages and around the time that we found out the girls needed a home I had just had my last miscarriage, so it opened me up to consider adoption.”
Four years later, this family continues to share their story - hoping to put more children into loving homes. Robert says, "You may not feel ready, but you don't necessarily have to be ready. You just have to be present. That's all your kids want is for you to pay attention, stop, slow down, sit down have a conversation, play. You don’t' need a degree or background training to love a kid.”
That’s the message Legacy Adoption Services and Samaritas wants people to understand. The organization gets plenty of questions about who can adopt. Executive Director Rachel Sykes says, “We're really looking for anyone who has a household that’s going well for them, you know if you’re able to sustain their current household you can adopt, if you're a single person in your household, you can adopt.” She says there are more than 10,000 children in Michigan in foster care and over 2,000 who need an adoptive family.
Robert says the solution is relatively simple. "The system is full of kids who would just love to have a mom and dad and love, to have a place to call their own, stability and the truth of the matter is most people have the capacity and ability to be a foster or adopt and I think if so many more people did, the system wouldn’t' be so full of kids, our homes would be full of kids.”
Latricia and Robert wouldn’t' have it any other way. Today they say it rarely crosses their minds that two of their children are adopted, until they look back and share their story. Robert says, "The crazy part is that in the beginning we thought we could help them and we can you know help change their life, but they changed our lives. They truly changed our life with so much more love and just personality and everything added to our family it's amazing."
If you would like to learn more about the foster or adoption process through Legacy Adoption Services and Samaritas, you can head to their website.
