In a 2020 survey, it turned out that 213,964 children under the age of 18 had entered foster care.
This number is in the United States alone.
These kids have their own stories, but they also have some things in common – they feel lost, unwanted, and longing for love.
For every child who finds their forever home also means hope and happiness.
Finally, they belong.
One TikTok footage left millions of people crying tears of joy.
In the TikTok clip that garnered 6.3M views, we see a newly adopted girl saying and pointing “that’s my mommy” to her teacher.
While all her classmates and teacher were singing “There was Jesus,” little Amaris was busy looking at her mommy.
She was so proud that she keeps on pointing to her mommy.
That clip alone will already make you teary-eyed, but the story behind this will make you understand how beautiful this video is.
“I felt like that was the moment she realized I wasn’t going anywhere,” Genevieve Traversy, 39, Amaris’ mother told in an interview with TODAY.
It’s one of those moments that you will remember – forever. Good thing she captured it all on video.
Genevieve and her family live in North Carolina. She said she filmed the clip shortly after adopting Amaris.
Amaris entered foster care right after she was born. At just 18 months old, they placed the little girl with Genevieve and her family.
=They knew it would not be easy, and they were right.
Since Genevieve and her husband, Shawn, already have four kids, Amaris felt scared. She would “flinch” when someone would try to approach her.
“She’d never drank out of a cup before and she had a lot of fears — like she was terrified of taking baths and she didn’t like to be touched. She liked to bite,” Genevieve recalled. “We had to pour a lot, a lot of love into her. There was quite a bit of crying — not just from her, but from all of us. It was hard.”
No wonder Genevieve felt as proud as she saw Amaris looking at her and telling everyone that she was her mommy.
Genevieve wasn’t just happy because Amaris loves her. She was over the moon because she knew exactly what it felt.
When Genevieve was just three, her father left them and her mom had to raise her and her two brothers.
Unfortunately, her mother had battles of her own.
“We simply became homeless and in foster care. My new identity became, “Ward of the State.” I didn’t feel like a leader, but rather like a burden to other families. Which is what some of them said to me.”
Soon, she became pregnant as a teen, but her child became her passion to turn her life around.
Genevieve is now a life coach, a writer, a speaker, and a mother.
Today, Amaris is five years and is now in kindergarten. She has also started reading.
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