A single dad who has fostered 30 kids over 20 years has come out of retirement to adopt five siblings so they can stay – and grow – together.
He says that keeping them together and bringing them into his life has brought a new level of energy to his home.
It was the right choice to make.
It turns out that this isn’t even his first time adopting.
He is now the legal parent of a total of twelve children – ten adopted and two biological.
While his two biological kids (and several of the foster children) are already grown, it isn’t stopping him from “starting again.”
In a courtroom in Buffalo, New York, there were tears brimming up everywhere as Judge Lisa Rodwin made Lamont Thomas the legal father of Zendaya, Jamel, Nakia, Major, and Michaela.
The young siblings range between the ages of one and five, with Zendaya being the eldest of the group and Michaela being the youngest.
It wasn’t just luck or fate that brought the family together in that courtroom.
Lamont had actually fostered the children’s dad when he was just a kid himself.
When Lamont found out that the children of the previous foster child of his were in need of a foster family and that some of them had been split up from their siblings already, he decided his retirement could wait a little bit longer if it meant bringing them all back together.
He went through recertification to become a foster parent again and took in all five of the siblings with the intention of adopting them.
After less than two years of fostering, they were ready to become a part of his family forever.
Lamont originally became a foster parent when some of his friends had lost their children in the system and he wanted to help.
He became certified to be a foster parent for the first time to do so. His first foster child was a young man named Michael Perez.
Since then, he has been on a roll, fostering around thirty children.
This newest group of five aren’t the first siblings whom he has gone one step further with and adopted.
The first children he adopted were twins named Germayne and Tremayne before going on to adopt three other children who needed somewhere to call home.
Michael Perez, Lamont’s first foster child and now his adopted son, said in an interview:
“I don’t believe that I would be the person that I am today without the morals he instilled in me [and] the extended family that I have now.”
Michael had been through three foster homes before finally landing in the stability of Lamont’s family.
In fact, Lamont has created such a positive environment that the foster children in his care almost always either become too old for foster care or return to their original families.
He’s not just another place for them to stop in a never-ending series of foster homes, as is often the case for many foster kids.
Now, five more kids are going to get to experience the positive influence and support that Lamont has already brought to so many children.
Learn more about this heartwarming story in the video below!
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