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Jessica still remembers the line from a book that sparked the beginning of her family’s journey.

“What would you do if you couldn’t fail?”

As her church book club discussed various courageous steps each person wanted to take in their life, Jessica’s answer was clear: “I wanted to be a mom.”

That moment led her to explore the process of becoming a foster parent. Jessica welcomed siblings Bernice, Annamarie and Henry into her home, and later adopted all three of them.

One day, Henry came home excited to tell her about CJ. The boys had become fast friends at school, and CJ had confided in him that he was living in foster care.

“Henry immediately came home and said, ‘Mom, mom, there’s another foster kid in my class. Can we adopt him?’” Jessica said. At the time, Jessica was still working through the dynamics of her own family and wasn’t able to step into another adoption process right away.

But she knew how important it was for CJ to have support. “Let’s get to know him. Let’s hang out with him,” she told Henry.

Jessica and Henry visited CJ at the group home where he was living and spent time getting to know him. Over time, CJ became more comfortable with them and asked if he could spend Thanksgiving with the family.

“It was really cool because then a couple of weeks later at Christmas time, I called him up, and I was like, ‘Hey, do you want to spend Christmas with us?’ And he said ‘Yes.’ And we ended up extending that four days to on and off for about two weeks,” Jessica shared. “He would go back to the group home for a day or two and then he would come back, and I was like, ‘You just need to be here.’”

Through our Wendy’s Wonderful Kids® program, recruiter RJ was instrumental in advocating for CJ’s needs in a permanent family. When he saw the strong bond forming, RJ helped prepare Jessica to bring CJ home for good.

“I write letters. I write a lot,” shared Jessica. “RJ would joke, ‘It’s like a diary entry, Jessica!’”

“That’s how I process things,” she added with a laugh. “He’s helped me, and I’ve been able to bounce things off of him, and I’ve been able to ask questions.”

“Jessica is like the epitome of unconditional commitment. She understands what these young people have to go through and what they’re dealing with and just knows how to adjust her own life to allow that child to be successful,” RJ explained.

For CJ, that understanding and willingness to adjust to his comfort level meant so much.

“He calls me Jessica,” Jessica said. “And he’s like, ‘You’re like a mom to me.’ And I’ve told him, ‘I don’t need to be called mom. I don’t need that validation. I need you to be part of family, and I need you to be connected and have that support and that stability and that connection.’”

Jessica’s community had a huge impact on her journey, too. “I love my friends that have adopted children and have been through the foster care system because when I’ve needed support, the people that I go to are the people that are in the trenches with foster care and adoption,” she said.

With help from RJ and the Foundation’s caring supporters, CJ became a permanent part of the family at age 15 through legal guardianship.

“I was not going to give up on him. I’ve known that this kid deserves family; this kid deserves love. He was in care for over 3,000 days and I wanted him to have that sense of belonging and that sense of permanency and that sense of you’re part of a family,” Jessica shared.

“He’s my son, and I love him, and he’s an amazing kid.”

And she has a message for others considering becoming a foster or adoptive parent:

“These kids need to be loved. These kids need family. These kids need support. And just because they’ve had a bad deck of cards in their life, they still deserve a family.”

If you or someone you know is interested in adoption, including adoption from foster care, our free step-by-step guide is a great place to start. It includes information about the different types of adoption, frequently asked questions, and a variety of resources to support your journey.