A family and a home for Joey, Logan and Noah
Joey stole KC and Lena Currie’s hearts before they even met the boy with the big brown eyes.
The Sudbury couple were at an adoption event when they saw a photo of Joey in his Batman pajamas, smiling and holding a balloon.
“I wanted to scoop him up,” KC recalled. “I couldn’t believe that little guy needed someone.”
Joey, then 18 months, was staying with a loving foster family and came to live with KC and Lena a couple weeks later.
In March of 2018, KC and Lena adopted Joey, who loves trains and turns 4 in January. On Friday, the couple plans to adopt Joey’s two younger brothers, Logan, 2 1/2 and Noah, 1 1/2 , at Worcester Juvenile Court on National Adoption Day.
Across the state that day, 140 children in foster care will be adopted. Joey, Logan and Noah have the same biological mother and were adopted by KC and Lena through Children’s Friend, an adoption agency and affiliate of the Seven Hills Foundation.
In Massachusetts, there are 8,600 children in foster care and 1,350 awaiting adoption, according to the Department of Children and Families.
“We are in desperate need for families who want to adopt,” said Veronica Listerud, director of adoption and family services for Children’s Friend, which finds forever homes for foster children. The growing number of kids in foster care is fueled by the opiate crisis, Listerud said, and youngsters are losing their parents to overdoses.
As a teacher, KC, 32, always knew she wanted to adopt. Lena, 34, an engineer, jumped on board after seeing the “cutest little faces” of children waiting to be adopted.
The couple first met Joey at his foster family’s home. Joey ran right over to Lena and KC, giving them a big hug, after his foster family had told him about his wonderful parents. Joey sat in Lena’s lap and they read a book together.
“We were just like, ‘Yep. We’re taking him home,’ ” Lena said.
Since then, KC and Lena have opened their hearts and home to Joey’s two brothers. They wanted Joey to share his journey with his biological siblings.
The boys call KC “Mama” and Lena “Mommy.” It’s chaos and lots of diapers at times but the couple wouldn’t have it any other way. They relish the tender moments of brotherly love, like when their boys read together on the coach. “This is why we did this,” KC said, “to have these siblings so close and to be each other’s person.”
from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/348eGTz
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