*Photo credit: Jenny Sevcik, Messenger-Inquirer 

Almost two and a half years after a sibling group of five young boys came to live with her, Meghan Payne officially adopted all of the boys from foster care.

According to an article in the Owensboro, Ohio Messenger-Inquirer, Payne worked as a special education teacher, and her parents, Tom and Amy, were life-long educators as well. All three of them had witnessed children in their classrooms in need of good, loving foster homes and decided to enroll in foster parenting classes. Meghan and her parents completed the 10 week training and applied for a home study about a year later.

It wasn’t long after Tom and Amy were licensed as foster parents that they received a call about five young brothers needing a family to care for them. The boys, ranging in age from 6 to 14, faced the possibility of being split up if a home large enough to accommodate all of them couldn’t be found. In August 2013, the boys moved in to Paynes’ parents’ foster home, even though Meghan, Tom and Amy were living under the same roof. A few months later, the brothers remained in the same house but the paperwork changed to reflect the boys living in Payne’s foster home.

The possibility of safely reuniting the boys with their birth family dissolved, and all five of them became available for adoption. Payne didn’t want to see the boys go anywhere and prayed for guidance in her decision to make them part of her family forever. Her parents, siblings, extended family and friends offered her enormous support, and on December 14, 2015, Payne officially adopted Kevin, Dustin, Romer, Kennedy and Brian.

“I’ve always wanted to be a mom, and I didn’t think this would be the way. This is not typical – clearly. But I wouldn’t want life any other way, I wouldn’t want to go back to the way things were.”

Payne’s advice for anyone considering becoming a foster parent is to go through the classes. “It’s a good way to understand what foster parenting is about, and it helps you decide it that’s something you want to do.”

Click here to read the entire article in the Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer.

Teachers, coaches, neighbors and daycare providers can be great foster or adoptive parents as well as people from all types of backgrounds. Learn more on our website or meet the children in need of a loving, adoptive family.