VIRGINIA – For Christmas this year, 10-year-old Matthew had a simple wish: to be adopted.
After 1,199 days in foster care, Matthew’s adoption was finalized last month, officially making him a part of the Taylor family.
His new parents, Cara and Paul Taylor, say the moment was everything they hoped for — and more.
“I asked him what he wanted for Christmas. He said, ‘I wanted a new name,’” Cara Taylor said, choking up.
The Taylors’ journey to adoption began long before Matthew entered their lives. Cara was adopted by her stepfather as a child and says she understands the complicated emotions children in foster care often feel.
“I understand that feeling of, ‘Well, didn’t they want me?’” she said.
After marrying Paul 19 years ago, the couple had their first son, but later struggled with infertility and pregnancy loss.
“We lost five back-to-back, and it was really hard. That’s never an easy road to walk through,” said Cara. “We were blessed with a really great doctor who helped us have two more natural biological children, and from there, pregnancy was just too scary. So we knew that it was time, if we wanted more, that we were going to foster and or adopt.”
Today, the Taylors live in Salem with their four children and are also fostering a baby girl.
“We feel really good about the five kids that we have,” said Cara. “We don’t treat them any differently. We don’t call that one the foster brother or this one the bio sister. They’re just all our kids.”
Over in Troutville, another foster-to-adopt story unfolded for Emily and Dalton Argenbright, who became foster parents as newlyweds.
“I was hearing about kids sleeping in the office, some kids having to go to group homes or residentials because there was just no homes for them,” Emily said. “So I convinced Dalton to open up our home as a foster care home.”
In July 2023, the couple, then 28 and 32, became foster parents to 14-year-old Gracie. Several months later, 3-year- old Kieryn joined their family.
Gracie, now 16, says she didn’t want to be adopted at first.
“I’ve been in and out of around six homes,” she said.
But after spending time together, her feelings changed. Gracie says the Argenbrights welcomed her with open arms and included her as past of the family.
“It was like, ‘Come downstairs. Talk to us,’” Gracie described. “It was just different. And then after a while, I was like, ‘This isn’t so bad.’”
Both Gracie’s and Kieryn’s adoptions were finalized in June. Now, the Argenbrights joke they’re the youngest mom and dad at parent-teacher night.
“We do get some weird looks sometimes,” Dalton said, with a smile.
“We’re definitely the youngest parents at the high school,” Emily added, laughing.
A Strained System
While Matthew, Gracie and Kieryn found permanent homes, thousands of other children in Virginia are still waiting.
As of December 1, nearly 4,857 children under 18 are in foster care statewide.
Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Resources Janet Kelly says the challenges are complex.
“As is typical with broken people and broken systems, it seems like there’s never enough money to go around,” Kelly said.
She points to staffing shortages as a major issue.
“The workload compared to our workforce,” said Kelly. “We have some agencies—local agencies—with 40% vacancies on their teams. And that really affects the quality of work and our ability to take care of children.”
That’s where agencies like HopeTree Family Services step in, helping recruit, train and support foster families.
Currently, HopeTree has 42 foster families statewide. But HopeTree Director of Foster Care April Estrada says that doesn’t even come close to enough.
“We would like to have 442. It still would not be able to meet the need,” she added.
30 Days of Hope Impact
The urgent need is one reason 10 News partnered again with HopeTree and Virginia’s Kids Belong for the 30 Days of Hope campaign.
In November, our campaign featured 35 children in need of families. Their stories generated more than 464,000 social media impressions and over 9,359 page views.
More importantly, the response led to action.
Virginia’s Kids Belong received 214 unique inquiries about featured foster children — compared to an average of just 35 per month. Seventeen people have already started working toward a foster license, and 62 reached out about specific children or fostering in general.
For families like the Taylors, the message is simple.
“They just want to be loved,” Paul Taylor said.
“I think every kid needs that chance to belong,” Cara added.
If you’d like to learn more about fostering, adoption or other ways you can help, click here.