Now was the time to act. Children needed help.
For 10 years, Brent and Amy Fox had pondered if they should become foster parents. The Whiteland couple had first considered opening their home to foster children shortly after the birth of their youngest daughter, but kept pushing it aside, believing they couldn’t do it.
But after a decade, they sat down and had to decide — either they take the first step toward fostering, or drop the topic entirely.
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They pushed through their fears.
“We had to just do it afraid. Our fears and uncertainties and doubts and insecurities did not go away once we said yes,” Amy Fox said. “We’re not extra strong or really special or super brave. We are regular, normal people who chose to say yes.”
State comes out on top
The Foxes shared their story during an announcement Thursday by Gov. Eric Holcomb that Indiana was the nation’s best at increasing the number of children adopted from foster care. In 2019, 2,489 children were adopted throughout the state, a significant increase from the 2,017 adopted the year before.
For that progress, and to further increase adoptions, Indiana was awarded $4.7 million from the U.S. Administration for Children and Families. The money will be used to further enhance Indiana’s child welfare system.
“Every child deserves to have people who will love and support them forever, so we’ve set out to ensure each is a part of a permanent, loving family,” Holcomb said. “With more than 1,000 kids in Indiana who are still waiting to be adopted, we appreciate our federal partners’ continued support as we pursue forever homes for each and every one.”
Holcomb made increasing adoption one of his top agenda items, and worked with the Department of Child Services to focus on matching children in the foster care system with permanent placements.
In 2018, the governor’s office worked with Terry Stigdon, director of the Indiana Department of Child Services, to build a culture to meet that goal. A dedicated adoption unit was created within the department, bringing on additional staff to focus on adoption solely. The number of adoption consultants has more than doubled, starting with seven consultants and growing to 19. An enhanced database has allowed for better tracking of potential adoptive families, and a picture book of children available to adopt.
A statewide rapid permanency review, designed to bring permanency to children and promote systemic change within the child welfare system by identifying barriers and implementing strategies to remove them, will be rolled out in the near future, Holcomb said.
“We’re empowering those family case managers to do that, to have those resources and to make it their main mission to find those permanent homes and loving parents, and unite the two,” Holcomb said.
Indiana has been working with the Administration for Children and Families, the federal agency focused on economic and social well-being of families. One of the agency’s primary goals has been increasing adoptions of foster children, said Lynn Johnson, assistant secretary of the Administration for Children and Families.
Part of that effort was distributing adoption and legal guardianship incentive awards, given to agencies that show progress in increasing the number of children in foster care who find permanent homes either through adoption or legal guardianship.
Of 49 states receiving those awards, Indiana is at the top, Johnson said.
“You all in Indiana are working hard to promote a culture of life by focusing on adoptions and child welfare,” she said.
Family shares adoption journey
The Fox family is an example of the revamped system’s success.
Brent and Amy Fox, together with their daughters Kirah and Kenah, and their adopted children Devonte, 4, and Xavier, 3, took time Thursday to talk about their adoption journey.
They shared about the first inklings they had about adoption, after Kenah was born. At the same time, they shared the daunting scope of that decision, and how they didn’t feel ready.
“We spent the next 10 years trying to ignore that conviction, because we were too scared, and it seemed like way too much for us to handle,” Brent Fox said.
The possibility of becoming foster parents bounced around for the next decade, until the Foxes decided they needed to give themselves an ultimatum, the result of which was getting their foster parent licenses.
In 2017, they were joined with their first placement, Devonte. Initially, they had only intended to foster one child at a time. But when they learned Devonte had a younger newborn brother, Xavier, they opened their home to him as well.
“We doubled the amount of kids in our family in a short amount of time, but we would not have it any other way,” Brent Fox said.
On July 10, 2019, they adopted the two children, officially welcoming them into their family. The decision to become a foster family, and eventually adopt, is not an easy one, Amy Fox said. Their family is not extraordinary; they were scared and uncertain throughout the process, and still have so much to learn, she said.
But the impact on Devonte and Xavier out-shined all of those fears. And she encouraged people to help foster children in any way they can — whether that’s taking the first step toward becoming a foster family, or being available to families who are fostering.
“Everyone can do something,” Amy Fox said. “Every child in Indiana belongs in a family, and families need your support.”
Much work remains
Despite the successes of the past two years, state officials recognized that much work remains when in comes to placing children in safe homes, Stigdon said. On average, it takes 332 days from the time of the termination of parental rights to the time when a foster child secures a forever home.
That has to improve, Stigdon said.
“If we want to offer the best service to Hoosier families and children, we have to be willing to constantly examine how we do our jobs and consider ways we can do them better,” she said.
With the award from the Administration for Children and Families, the state can keep working to do just that, Holcomb said.
“We’re not going to let up for one second. We have over 1,000 children just in Indiana seeking that forever home. We take that as our assignment,” he said. “We’re looking not just to be there for them, but to share the good word all across the state of Indiana.”
