US Senator John Thune’s Weekly Column: Full Homes, Full Hearts

Full Homes, Full Hearts
By Sen. John Thune

For me and Kimberley, raising two daughters has been the joy of our lives. Nothing compares to family dinners, cheering on your kids’ teams, and watching them build families of their own. Anybody who’s raised a family knows it’s not easy. Along the way, there are sleepless nights, personal sacrifices, and hurdles with on-the-job training.

But for some families, the challenges are far greater. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, there are 407,000 children in foster care – 117,000 of these children are waiting to be adopted. These kids are in the foster care system through no fault of their own and are in need of a secure and loving home. Foster and adoptive parents give the gift of family to thousands of children each year, providing the stability and support that many of us take for granted.

As a proud member of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption, I have had the privilege to meet many of these families throughout my time in Congress. Each year, I have the opportunity to honor a South Dakota family who has chosen to adopt or foster children in need and who inspire and support other families to do so as well. Meeting these South Dakota families is always humbling and inspiring.

This year, I nominated Emily, Dan, and Brady Richardt from Aberdeen for the Angels in Adoption Award. For nearly a decade, since they first started the adoption process themselves, Emily and Dan have wanted to be involved in the foster care community. They put these plans on hold, though, when they welcomed their biological son, Brady, but their desire to be a foster family didn’t go away. Once their son was old enough to understand the importance of fostering children, the Richardts opened their home and over the last five years have welcomed eight children into their family for as little as 10 days and for as long as a year. The Richardts are currently fostering a four-month-old baby boy, who I was lucky enough to meet at the Brown County Fair this year.

During times of uncertainty in foster children’s lives, families like the Richardts provide stability, support, and love. There are few acts more worthy of our admiration than welcoming a child in need and providing them with a secure and loving home. I was proud to present Emily, Dan, and Brady with the 2022 Angels in Adoption Award when they visited Washington, D.C., recently. For all they’ve done, this recognition seems like the least we could do.

There are countless families just like the Richardts whose homes are a little fuller for having chosen to adopt or foster a child in need. I am so grateful for these families who welcome the challenges alongside the rewards of being adoptive or foster parents. I know these families will continue to inspire others to choose adoption and to open their homes to foster children.

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