A Radio Ad Led Terre Haute Single Dad Steve Stemple to Adopt a Teenager, and Then He Took In the Boy’s Friend Too

Steve Stemple was behind the wheel in Terre Haute, Indiana, when a radio ad for Adopt Kids USA came on. He had never planned to adopt. By the end of that drive he had visited the website, and the visit turned into a foster placement, a finalized adoption and, later, a second teenager at the dinner table. Stemple, a single dad, now raises two teenage boys, Isaac and Bentley, on his own.

WTHI-TV told his story on Nov. 12, during National Adoption Month.

A Website Visit That Changed the Plan

According to WTHI, Stemple first meant to adopt one child. After he heard the ad, he went to the Adopt Kids USA website. Stemple told the station that a visit there makes a person’s heart “just open up.”

AdoptUSKids describes itself on its site as a national project that supports child welfare systems and connects children in foster care with families. Its homepage features profiles of children looking for homes, including a pair of brothers who want to stay together with cats and dogs.

Meeting Isaac, a Teen Who Had Moved From Home to Home

The boy Stemple met was Isaac. WTHI reports that Isaac had been through multiple placements and had spent more than a year at Gibault, a Terre Haute organization that, according to its website, runs residential programs for youth ages 6 to 20 with individual, family and group therapy.

Gibault’s site says each young person in its residential programs works with a master’s-level therapist, with regular individual, family and group sessions, and that the approach is trauma-informed. Its Terre Haute campus is on South U.S. Highway 41. Its programs include one for youth with autism spectrum disorders, a structured residential setting for educational, emotional and social needs, and a psychiatric residential treatment unit. WTHI does not say which program Isaac was in, only that he spent more than a year at Gibault.

Stemple recalled thinking, “This kid really needs a home.” He planned to foster Isaac first and then adopt. The adoption was finalized in November 2025.

The station does not give Isaac’s exact age or Bentley’s. It describes both boys as teenagers.

Bentley Joins the Family in February

Isaac had a friend, Bentley. According to WTHI, the two became close enough that Stemple said they were like brothers, and the family decided to bring Bentley in. Bentley moved into the house in February.

The move meant Stemple went from living alone to raising two teenagers. WTHI notes that the boys’ time in several different homes has created challenges.

His goals, Stemple said, are simple: “Teaching them right from wrong, showing them that hard work pays off.”

What Adopting a Teen Looks Like on Paper

Stemple’s household reflects a pattern the adoption data backs up. The Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, in a piece on common myths about foster care adoption, says 29% of children adopted from foster care live in single-parent homes. It also says adoption from foster care typically costs between $0 and $5,000 in fees and home studies, that subsidies usually continue until a child turns 18 or 21, and that adoptive parents have the same rights and responsibilities as birth parents.

The foundation also notes that children enter foster care because of abuse, neglect, parental drug use or similar problems, not because they committed offenses. A 2022 survey it cites found 51% of Americans wrongly believed otherwise.

The foundation also pushes back on the idea that some children cannot be placed. “No child is unadoptable, they just aren’t adopted,” it says. It adds that about 26% of adopted children have at least one parent who was 55 or older at the time of adoption, so there is no ideal age to adopt. More than 100,000 U.S. children, it says, are waiting for adoptive families.

Teenagers face a particular risk. The foundation says nearly 20,000 youth turn 18 or 21 and leave care each year without a permanent home, which raises their risk of homelessness and unemployment.

Why Teens Are in the Spotlight This November

The U.S. Children’s Bureau began the observance as National Adoption Week in 1984, and its National Adoption Month page says the campaign has focused in recent years on older youth, who often wait the longest for permanency. Its 2026 theme is “A Home for Every Child.” The page says adoption gives older youth a sense of belonging, stability and ongoing support as they reach milestones such as school and careers, and that teens are at greater risk of leaving foster care without a permanent family.

The page reports that in fiscal year 2025, 11,826 of the 31,695 children under 18 who were legally free for adoption and had an adoption plan were ages 11 to 17. AdoptUSKids, a Children’s Bureau project, cites 122,000 children and teens waiting to be adopted.

Stemple’s message to other adults is short. Boys like his, he told WTHI, need “a loving home, and somebody who cares.” The station noted that adoption resources are available in Terre Haute and across Indiana.

Other single parents on this site have taken the same route. Jerry Woods, a single dad in Rusk, Texas, adopted his 2-year-old niece Kulture, single foster mom Latisha Williams adopted sisters Ana and Payton in Palm Beach County, and Yolanda Goodwin adopted six young cousins after taking them in the night their mother called.

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

Image: Indiana Landmarks – CC BY 4.0/Wikimedia Commons