Terri and Terry Richardson, of Devine, quickly fell in love with these sweet babies who they adopted over the past two years. They shared their story of fostering and adoption, hoping to draw other hearts to the huge need that exists. According to the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS), last year, 20,685 children were in foster care in Texas–and 249 were in our community according to a local group serving Medina, Real and Uvalde Counties.
“We have been fostering through Angels Crossing in Castroville now 3 years,” Mrs. Richardson said. “We got started by doing a kinship for a friend of ours for about 8 months. After that my husband and I just felt that God was telling us it was something we needed to be doing at this point in our lives. So we found Angels Crossing, went through all the paperwork and inspections. It took about 8 months.”
The Richardsons took in baby Rylie in 2017.
“When we started fostering we had no intentions of adopting but we soon found out that was not God’s plan. We brought Rylie home from the hospital at 6 days old and drug addicted,” she adds.
Rylie’s sibling Jayden came to them in 2018.
“We just couldn’t separate the two. Jayden was brought home from the hospital at 3 days old drug addicted. My husband and I believe God has had his hand on these two from the very beginning….Today we see very little, if any, side effects from it. It has been such a blessing to see how doors were opened for them both to become part of our family,” Richardson said.
“Both our children Amanda and Shelby fell in love with them from day one and wanted them as part of our family from the start. Rylie and Jayden have blessed our lives with many smiles and laughter. Watching them hit and in some cases exceed their growth milestones has been a true blessing. Rylie ‘our little spit fire’ is sassy, sweet and loves to help with everything. Jayden has a sweet loving personality and is definitely all boy. He is such a dare devil and loves to climb.”
When asked what advice they would give others looking to foster or adopt, they say “First pray about it, above all else. Make sure your heart is in the right place. Know it is not easy and can be very stressful at times yet rewarding all at the same time. If you have kids of your own, make sure they are in agreement with what you want to do because it does affect them as well.”
They also recommend, “Have friends and family become certified foster babysitters because there are times you will need your own family time.”
“When you have a child that arrives at your home, and they are scared and unsure of things, lots of love and patience is needed. To watch them gain their confidence, to start learning how to do just basic life skills and to be a kid again is so rewarding,” Richardson said.
When fostering, Richardson comments, “The ultimate joy and sometimes sad part is when they get to go back to be with their family. When you see how hard the parent or parents have worked to get their lives back on track to be able to provide for their own kids truly makes it worth it.”