Traci Foreman

My husband and I – when we started to build our family – I got pregnant and then my daughter had a heart condition. So she had an operation right when she was born, but after 20 days she went to heaven. So we lost her. Then we had trouble trying to build our family so we said 'You know what, we'll just adopt. There's plenty of kids out there.' We started the adoption process and then I got pregnant and stayed pregnant. And in 2000, my son was born, he's my bio kid. And 10 weeks later my daughter Anna was born and we adopted her. She was a baby and she came home September 25th which was awesome. It was in 2013, I live in Arizona and they were running a year long program about Wednesday's Child, which was about children who are in the foster care system. So my amazing husband Eric called me while I was at work one day and said 'I'm sitting here in this big house and I think we have enough love in our hearts and there are over 14,000 children who need forever homes. I think we should adopt another child.' So we went through the process and then when we learned more about it we learned that there are a lot of sibling groups that need to be adopted so not to break up brothers and sisters. So we adopted two amazing children in 2014. Now I'm the proud mom of two 15 year olds, a 7 year old, and a 3 year old. My husband always teases me because when we were dating I would be like 'We're going to have like 4 or 6 kids!' and so then he actually reminded me a couple years ago 'Remember you told me you wanted to have four kids.' It was one of those days where I was like 'Really we have four kids. Are we nuts?' It was not a great day. It was sad that we lost our daughter and then had trouble starting our family, but not a day goes by that I don't think that all of my kids were meant to be my kids. My only regret is that I wish I had more time and I could adopt more kids. [lots of talk about the foster care system] You don't have to be a perfect person to be a perfect parent to a child. C: How did you become somebody that cares so much? I don't know! Just learning about those kinds of children and feeling so fortunate that in my life I've had so much. Why not give back? And you get so much more in return. My husband has a great quote that says 'I think we need these kids more than they need us' and I think what he meant is – we have become much better people in that you appreciate things. I wish I just had more time and energy and could adopt... 10 more kids! I just can't do it! But that's why I tell my story. I would love for more people to adopt kids.