Black and white are just colors. They certainly don’t define us. They certainly can’t give us a peek into what’s in our hearts. Love does not discriminate.
Foster children are usually not the most lovable puppy in the window for prospective foster or adoptive parents. They come with baggage, the majority of which belongs to biological moms and dads who lack the proper parenting and coping skills.
Peter Mutabazi can tell you all about that. Mutabazi, who is black, became a “forever dad” in November of 2019 after adopting Anthony, a white teen who had been traumatized, several times, over the course of his young life.
The backstory is heartbreaking. After Anthony’s birth parents gave him up for adoption, he spent a few years in the foster care system before he was adopted at age four by a couple in Oklahoma. But his adoptive parents left him in a Charlotte, North Carolina hospital when he was 11.
They never returned.
“I thought, ‘Who would do that?'” Mutabazi told Good Morning America. “Once I knew the parents’ rights were signed off and he had nowhere to go, I [knew] I had to take him.”
Mutabazi, who lives in Charlotte, became Anthony’s foster dad before eventually adopting him. Anthony is now blessed to have a dedicated, loving father in his life.
But now, Mutabazi is stepping up his game.
Over the holidays, Anthony got the idea to reach out to another teenager needing a foster home. That was followed by a serendipitous call from a social worker. There was a young teenager from the area in need of a foster home.
You know what comes next.
Meet Kai, the new member of this blended family.
“When Anthony asked me to help a teen I couldn’t say no,” Mutabazi wrote on his Instagram page. “Knowing how many youth are about to age out of foster care without a home we knew opening up our home was the right thing to do.”
He then noted some sobering statistics.
“I know that teens have lower adoption rates than younger children and they often wait longer to be adopted. Out of the over 400,000 kids in the U.S. foster care system, over 120,000 are waiting for adoptive families and only 5% of all kids adopted in 2018 were between the ages of 15 and 18 years old.
“The road ahead may not be easy, but we are excited and willing to do whatever it takes to let Kai know that he is seen, heard, and known, and that we choose him to be a part of our family.”
