It’s time for a feel-good story that will restore our faith in humanity. This time, that story comes in the form of a woman who chose to adopt the child of her husband’s ex-wife despite the child not being related to her husband. The woman, who grew up in foster care, decided to make this selfless decision in order to save the young child from entering the foster care system himself.
Christie Werts met her now husband Wesely five years ago. Now, the two are living with all of their children in one room. When the pair came together, Wesley brought with him his two sons Austin and Dakota whom he’d fathered previously with his ex-wife.
When the couple learned that Wesley’s ex-wife had passed away from a long battle with addiction, they realized that meant there was no parent willing to take her newborn son Levi in. That would mean that he was going to be put into America’s foster care system and live his life as an orphan.
Werts, who was a foster care child herself in her younger years, knows the struggle that comes along with being raised in the system. As of January of this year, Christie Werts went through the steps to officially legally adopt the boy.
She spoke about the decision in an interview with Daily Mail, saying, “When I heard about Levi, without hesitation I said we should take him.” She also added the following about her own experience as a child. “I myself was a foster kid and, although for the most part I had a great experience, I did not want him going to foster care.”
The adoption process was long and arduous. The family lived in Ohio, but in order to make the adoption official, they would have to move to foster the child for a period of time before the paperwork was completed. That meant that the family was forced to pick up its life and move to Texas to begin the legal proceedings.
Werts offered more explanation as to why she decided to go through with the adoption. She said, “Although, my experience was overall as good as it can be in foster care, I just knew I loved my stepkids enough to make sure they got to be with their half-brother. I did not want Levi to end up in the foster care system.”
While this selfless act will surely have a great positive impact on the life of the child, the wide spread media coverage that the story is receiving can also swerve as a wonderful message to those who read it. There is still good in the world. It is all around us, even though it is often obscured by the constant negative messaging of the mainstream media.;
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