Foster Mom Kayla Summers Learned Her Baby Shared Her Mother’s Birthday, Hometown and Middle Name. Then She Adopted Her.

On Sept. 30, a judge made Kayla Summers the legal mother of the girl she had been fostering since the child was about a year old. By then, Summers had learned that the baby, Paisleigh, shared her own mother’s birthday, her mother’s hometown in Florida and her own middle name, Renee. The family appeared on TODAY with Jenna & Sheinelle on Nov. 4, and the story was written up by Upworthy on Nov. 6.

Three Details That Matched

According to Upworthy, Paisleigh shares Summers’ mother’s birthday and the same hometown in Florida. The Root, which reported on the family in October, said all three were born in Florida. The middle name came as the biggest surprise: Summers, her mother and Paisleigh all share Renee. Summers said she gasped aloud when she saw the name.

Upworthy’s headline says adoption felt like the inevitable next step once those links came to light. The TODAY video of the family drew about 319,000 views in its first 24 hours, the outlet reported.

Upworthy also reported a smaller match. Summers and Paisleigh both name Cinderella as their favorite princess.

From Foster Placement to Adoption Plan

Summers, a single mother in Georgia, took Paisleigh in as a foster child in June 2024, when the baby was about a year old, The Root reported. The plan at the time was reunification with Paisleigh’s biological family.

That is the usual starting point. AdoptUSKids, a national recruitment project, says the first priority after a child’s safety is reuniting the child with family, that slightly more than half of children in foster care return home and that, except in cases of extreme abuse, nearly all children start with a case plan of returning home. Foster parents are asked to support that plan by working with birth parents and caseworkers.

As Paisleigh hit milestones, Summers began to hope the girl would stay. About four months after the placement, she asked her case manager about adoption. The Root said a court later ended the biological parents’ rights, and Summers formally adopted Paisleigh on Sept. 30, 2026. Upworthy described the moment as Summers standing before the judge and legally becoming Paisleigh’s mom, “beyond ethnicity and societal rules.”

What the Law Requires Before an Adoption

AdoptUSKids explains that a child cannot be freed for adoption until the rights of all legal and biological parents have been severed, either by the state asking a court to terminate them or by parents giving them up voluntarily. When that happens, most children are adopted by relatives or by their foster parents, with attachment and continuity of care as guiding considerations. If neither is possible, agencies search for other families through exchanges such as AdoptUSKids.

The project also lays out what foster parents take on while a case is open. They are responsible for the child’s medical, mental health, educational and day-to-day needs and are expected to coordinate closely with the caseworker. AdoptUSKids advises them to take time for themselves to prevent burnout, to use the respite care available through their state or county and to learn their rights, including any foster parent bill of rights in their state.

The federal Children’s Bureau no longer reports a count of children “waiting to be adopted,” noting on its AFCARS data page that the term is not an official designation. Its dashboard instead tracks children with an adoption permanency plan and those whose parental rights have been terminated.

Life With a “Mini Version” of Mom

Summers describes Paisleigh as very much like her. “She is a mini version of me,” she said, according to The Root. Paisleigh, now 3 and nicknamed “Pay Pay,” likes princess dresses, toy heels and playing with her mother’s makeup.

Summers is Black, and Paisleigh is white. The Root reported that Summers talks openly with her daughter about their different skin tones, has learned how to care for Paisleigh’s hair and how to protect her fair skin from the sun, and has stayed in touch with Paisleigh’s biological extended family. She hopes for a future relationship with Paisleigh’s birth mother. Summers told The Root she does not see the world as colorless, and her closing message was to look at each person’s heart and “just move with love.”

Upworthy quoted the TODAY segment’s framing of the adoption: for Paisleigh, home is not just a foster home but a forever home. The outlet said Hilton Hotels is sponsoring a three-night stay for the pair at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Golf Resort and Spa in Miramar Beach, Florida.

Summers shares her family’s story on Instagram as Kayla Renee, and Upworthy embedded several of her posts in its article. In the timeline the outlets lay out, Paisleigh arrived in June 2024, Summers raised the question of adoption about four months later, the judge finalized it on Sept. 30, 2026, and the TODAY segment followed five weeks after that.

Where to Start if a Family Wants to Foster in Georgia

Foster Georgia, the state’s recruitment site, tells prospective families to call 877-210-KIDS or attend an information session, which it says are held most weeks. Its home page also lists pre-service training for new foster and adoptive parents and links to the state’s IMPACT training page. The site does not spell out requirements for single applicants such as Summers, so the intake line is the place to ask. In Summers’ case, the path ran through her case manager, whom she asked about adopting the foster child already living in her home.

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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Santeri Viinamäki – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons