An adoptive father in Buffalo, New York, is making a huge difference in the lives of five siblings.
Lamont Thomas could not stand the thought of the children going to separate families, so he adopted all five of them at once.
“I fought for close to two and a half years just to be able to get them together, and we won, we got it,” Lamont said, after making the adoption legal in court on Thursday.
Over the years, the adoptive father has fostered over 30 kids and adopted 12. This time, the siblings’ ages are 4, 3, 2 and 1, but Lamont said he is up to the challenge of raising so many young ones on his own.
“I want to be the difference; make a difference by being a difference for these youths,” he stated, adding that he will do anything in his power to give his children a bright future.
In March, Breitbart News reported that a single father who had already raised six adopted children was planning on adopting a seventh.
Joe Toles, 60, from Queens, New York, said “There’s never going to be the perfect time to start or expand your family. But this feels like the right thing to do.”
The young man Toles adopted was a 20-year-old named Jhon, a native of the Dominican Republic who has special needs.
Toles said he grew up in the foster care system, so he knows what it is like to be a teenager and young adult searching for a forever family.
“It takes work, but I make the effort in nurturing the relationships,” the former guidance counselor said. “Until I took the plunge, I would never have understood the real difference it’s made to all our lives. Love happens and it changes everything.”
Toles said even though kids in foster care have a more likely chance of becoming homeless and dropping out of school, his experience was different thanks to a track coach he met during high school.
“The coach said, ‘I treat you the way you deserve to be treated,’ and that’s the way I raise my sons,” he stated.
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