29
A Wrightsville Beach
couple takes the
rewarding journey
from fostering to
adoption
COREY AND KYLEE MAARSCHALK
always felt a calling to adopt. In 2017,
they began to look into international
adoption. After hitting multiple
roadblocks, Corey proposed the idea of fostering a local
child. The idea initially concerned Kylee. Fostering can
be temporary, and, as a teacher at New Hanover High
School, she knew giving up a child would be hard.
“I cry like a baby every year at graduation,” she says. “I
couldn’t imagine having to say goodbye to a child who actually
lived with us.”
After much thought and prayer, Kylee and Corey decided
to meet with a social worker from the New Hanover County
Department of Social Services (DSS) to have a conversation. The
couple learned that although the county had the second-highest
number of families licensed to take in foster children in the state, it wasn’t
nearly enough.
“I was rocked in that conversation,” Kylee says. “At that time, there were
about 425 children in foster care in New Hanover County and only about 100 families
licensed to take in those children.”
At the end of this informative conversation, the social worker told the Maarschalks
that he would leave the paperwork with them so they could take their time to make a decision.
Kylee immediately jumped up and said, “Let me grab my pen. I’m in.”
Siblings Seyla and Myles were among the thousands of children in North Carolina’s foster care system until they
found their forever home with Corey and Kylee Maarschalk of Wrightsville Beach.
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