Governor Jim Pillen was joined Monday by representatives from DHHS, the Nebraska Children and Home Society, and families who have been through the adoption process, highlighting the impact foster, kinship and adoptive families have on Nebraska children.
To date this year, 331 adoptions have been completed in Nebraska, and nearly 200 children are still waiting for placement in a permanent home.
Pillen encouraged every Nebraskan to answer the call for foster and adoptive families, “Answer your heart, answer the promptings of the Holy Spirit, so that you could say yes,” said Pillen. “And I can guarantee you this, I’ll bet the farm on it: If you do, your life will never be the same. And you will really, really understand how love conquers all.”
Among those joining Pillen to encourage Nebraskans to step up as foster and adoptive parents were Miranda and Craig Coleman, the parents of freshman Nebraska football player Malachai Coleman.
Miranda explained hold Malachai and his sister, Nivea, came into their lives at the ages of ten and seven, and the impact the kids had on them. She also read from a letter by Malachai, in which he said the foster care system not only changed his life, but saved it.
“Was it hard and dark at times? Yes. Being passed from home to home isn’t easy for anyone. But it makes it worth the wait when you find the one, the one that makes any dark part of your past disappear because they love you for you and nothing else. The one that helps you see that you do have value and deserve to be loved. The one that shows up every day because they wouldn’t have it any other way,” Miranda read. She continued, quoting Malachai, “I found my one eight years ago and want all kids around the world to experience the love that I have from this family. Because simply, every kid deserves to be loved.”
Of those children currently in the state’s foster system awaiting placement in a permanent home, 53 of them are 16 and older, while 27 are under the age of five.
