fostering
&adoption
Children are taken into care for different reasons
including chronic neglect, family financial hardship, or
parental substance abuse. Some parents cannot provide
a safe, stable environment for their children. Some relin-quish
their rights at birth and offer the newborn up for
adoption.
There are around 120 families licensed to foster
through social services. Another 90 licensed families are
listed with private organizations.
“You have to decide if fostering is the right choice for
your family,” Moore says.
Holloman embarked on her journey three years ago.
She chose Wilmington’s Bair Foundation Child and
Family Ministries, a private Christian nonprofit foster
agency, and completed the process to become a foster
parent.
Foster parents can choose the level of care they want
to offer. Holloman initially requested to do only respite
care, temporary care for children awaiting placement or
help for foster parents needing a break.
“I just wanted to help kids out, and love them and
help them through whatever they were dealing with,” she
says on a podcast produced by The Archibald Project,
an orphan care advocacy organization. “I wasn’t thinking
long-term. I always said, ‘If I fall in love with them and
want to adopt them, great.’ But I wasn’t ready to adopt.
I was just testing the water.”
PHOTOS BY MILLIE HOLLOMAN PHOTOGRAPHY
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Millie Holloman says she immediately fell in love with
Vera Wren while offering respite foster care. Three years
later, Holloman adopted the little girl.
www.wrightsvillebeachmagazine.com WBM