Dave Thomas Foundation places 500 Kentucky foster children in forever homes

BOWLING GREEN, Ky.- Some 122,000 children without a home. 

That is how many children in our country are in foster care and nearly 3,000 of them are right here in Kentucky. 

“When they leave foster care without a family, they tend to have, or they’re more at risk for negative outcomes. Homelessness, being uneducated, unemployed, becoming early parents – not because they’re bad kids but because they don’t have that safety net of family,” said chief executive officers of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption Rita Soronen. 

The Dave Thomas Foundation just hit a milestone of 500 children in foster care who have been adopted through the program. 

“At the Dave Thomas Foundation for adoption we believe that any child at any age is adoptable and that they deserve a family whether they’re 7 or 17,” said Soronen. 

A local family, the Barbours, adopted 16-year old Korie Barbour. She was in more than 30 foster care placements before she found her forever home with them. 

“I was constantly bounced from home to home, for about 13 years. And then, my longest placement was only ever for about a month,” said Barbour. 

She said her outlook on life changed completely.

“I never would have thought that I would be a senior or that I would be getting my associate’s degree. Before I had a family I was just going to be living on the streets and end up dropping out of school. Like to me, that was just how it would end up being. Like now, I don’t have that problem so I’m really really thankful,” said Barbour. 

The Barbour family hopes their story inspires others to consider adopting foster care children. 

“This is a great time to elevate that notion of how important family is, and particularly during COVID, I think we’re realizing even more how special, how important, and how critical it is to take care of family. Our children in foster care need to be part of that conversation,” said Soronen.