Staff report
Two beloved foster children got their forever home Monday, despite the havoc the evil coronavirus has caused. Love found a way that their adoption by the Rodriquez family of Florence could be approved virtually — and so it was.
The Rodriquez family moved from Texas to Northern Kentucky in the summer of 2016 with their two boys, now aged 24 and 15. Patty started work at Florence Elementary in 2016 where she learned the importance of foster care, so she and her husband, Javier, became foster parents. They have fostered nine children and provided respite for several others.
Marie and Trey were placed with them in September 2018, small children who were expected to stay just a couple of weeks. But when little Marie said “Good night, Mommy Patty” as Patty was putting her to bed that first night, Patty prayed through tears that she would be staying. She had always wanted a daughter.
“Fostering has always been a family decision,” said Patty. And when the older boys were told that Marie and Trey could be adopted, they both enthusiastically agreed.
Trey and Marie had been in foster care since Trey was 18 months old and Marie was 3 months old.
“We were discouraged about the timing as the COVID-19 was going to set back (the official adoption) to July at the earliest,” said Patty. “But our attorney Kathrine Schultz told us of the option to do it virtually and we jumped on it. We just wanted them to be legally ours.”
So by video conference, the court made it official and the Rodriquez family grew by two happy children — Trey Armando and Marie Ann — and the celebration at home included cake and a drive-by parade of the family’s friends and co-workers wishing them well.
“There are challenges and blessings with each foster placement,” said Patty. “We are so blessed. We took another placement late last week and it amazes me how Marie and Trey see the new child as part of the family. In their eyes, everyone who walks in the door is family.”
