Single Foster Mom Latisha Williams Adopted Sisters Ana and Payton in Palm Beach County, and She Is Still Fostering the Boy They Call Their Brother

Ana, adopted by a single foster mother in Palm Beach County, Florida, says she felt stable once the adoption was final. She told WPEC CBS 12 that she felt she was exactly where she needed to be. The woman who adopted her and her sister Payton, Latisha Williams, is still fostering, and the girls have welcomed the boy now living in their home as a brother.

A household of one becomes a family of three

Williams built her family through foster care, according to CBS 12 reporter Luli Ortiz. Her household grew from one person to three when she adopted Ana and Payton, who could not reunite with their birth family. The report does not give the girls’ ages or the date of the adoption.

Ana has her own history in foster care. She told CBS 12 that the work her family does now is personal, because the children they help did not get the help they needed earlier, and she has been through some of the same things.

The boy the girls call their brother

The family’s newest member is a boy who is in Williams’ care as a foster child. The girls, according to CBS 12, have welcomed him as a brother. His name and age were not given in the report.

“He is kind,” Payton said. Ana added that “he is funny, he is silly, he is caring.”

Williams said fostering became a calling after her first placement. She told the station that a child’s smile and the love children give back made her realize how much she wanted to help.

Why Williams works to keep siblings in touch

Williams puts one goal at the center of her fostering: keeping children connected to their birth families, especially when brothers and sisters have been placed in separate homes. “That’s the main thing,” Williams said. “Trying to keep those relationships together.”

That focus reflects a challenge child welfare programs describe. The Justice Resource Institute, a nonprofit that works with children in foster care, says the majority of children in the foster care system have at least one sibling. The organization lists several reasons siblings end up apart, including a limited number of homes that can take sibling groups, large sibling groups, children entering care at different times and differing levels of need.

The institute gives an example from its own program: a group of 10 siblings, the largest it has seen, and it notes that foster homes are generally not licensed for that many children. The institute lists those placement limits among the reasons brothers and sisters are separated.

The institute also states that separation from siblings is a trauma that can affect later relationships. That is the organization’s position, not a finding about this family.

What keeps the family fostering

Ana’s comments suggest the family sees its foster care as a way to pass something on. She described the work as helping children who did not get the help they needed earlier, and she tied it directly to her own experience.

CBS 12 reported that Williams’ first foster child showed her how much children can give, and that the experience turned fostering into a commitment she could not walk away from.

Other families have recently made similar journeys, including a couple in Calabash, N.C., who adopted three children from foster care and a grandmother who adopted her grandson in a Lucas County courtroom on National Adoption Day.

How adoption from foster care works in Palm Beach County

CBS 12 framed the family’s story around National Adoption Month. The observance is held each November and is an annual initiative of the Children’s Bureau, according to AdoptUSKids, which says the initiative’s yearly commitment is to encourage adoption from foster care and to create bright futures for children, youth and families.

In Palm Beach and Broward counties, the lead agency is ChildNet, which CBS 12 named as a partner on free adoption from foster care. ChildNet’s adoption steps page lists five stages. The first is a free, no-obligation open house. Next come pre-service training, a home study and a background check, and the agency notes that finishing the classes does not by itself mean a family is approved.

After a home study is approved, families can review children who are available for adoption and attend recruitment and matching events. Once a child is placed, a counselor visits monthly during a supervision period of at least 90 days. The adoption becomes legal at a hearing before a judge, ChildNet says.

ChildNet also offers an adoption overview and a way to register for its next open house, and its homepage says the need for foster parents in Broward and Palm Beach is “greater than ever,” especially for older youth and siblings.

For families who want to foster first, ChildNet’s foster parent page says there is an especially great need for foster parents for older youth and siblings. Orientation and pre-service training can be completed online. The page lists 954-414-6001 for Broward County and 561-352-2501 for Palm Beach County, and the agency’s general lines are 954-414-6000 and 561-352-2500.

The CBS 12 report also pointed readers to Forever Family, a nonprofit that works with local television stations to help children and teens in foster care find permanent homes. The organization says it recruits foster and adoptive parents and directs people starting the adoption process to a local agency.

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

Image: Sharon Hahn Darlin – CC BY 2.0/Wikimedia Commons