Mother allows son to be adopted by foster parents

It’s not the usual foster care situation. A mother decides to voluntarily allow her son to be adopted by his foster parents, even though she could have gotten him back.

A few years ago, Clellie Laws says she went down a dark path and found herself in rehab. Her 13 year-old son, Derrikk needed to be placed in foster care. He decided he wanted to live with Wayne and Jessica Hunter who had been friends of the family since he was six.

“And then when everything went down I thought, I know these people very well. I’ve known them almost all my life, so I might as well move in with them,” Derrikk said.

Hunters agreed and got licensed as foster parents. It worked out great.

“We come from two combined families as it is, so bringing him into our family was just a way to put it into one big family,” Wayne said.

In fact, it worked out so well that even though Clellie had worked hard to get her life in order to get her son back, Derrikk had other ideas.

“But he didn’t want to come home,” Clellie said. “He didn’t feel safe. He didn’t trust that I was gonna stay sober.”

So Clellie made the tough decision to allow Hunters to adopt her son for his sake.

“It’s hard for me to admit that someone else was able to take better care of my son than I was,” Clellie said.

But it seems to have worked out well for everyone involved.

“It’s almost like we adopted Clellie too,” Jessica said. “It’s like we’re separated parents because she takes him on the weekends, and whenever she has something fun come up she’ll call and see if he wants to come.”

“I go to her house every weekend and we watch movies and eat and stuff,” Derrick said.

“Foster care is an amazing thing,” Clellie said. “I can’t even imagine what would have happened if these guys weren’t here for my son when I couldn’t take care of him.”

Health & Welfare officials say more foster homes are needed. For more information on becoming foster parent, call 208-528-5900.