A home for Monarika
It’s such a great day for us when we can be part of the adoption of a teenager. We often struggle to find foster families willing to take older kids and the longer the kids are in care, the more they feel the weight of a lack of family.
Monarika, 17, had been in foster care for seven years – until today, when she was adopted by a woman who works in a group home where she was placed. She told one of her workers that she knew the instant she met Karen Pickett Hedges that she wanted her to be her mom.
Monarika must have felt the love in Judge Ralph Winkler’s courtroom Thursday. She was surrounded by members of her new family. They all wore purple T-shirts that read, “Team Hedges – Lifetime Member.” Her mom kept Monarika supplied with tissues to wipe her happy tears.
“She deserves every bit of love coming her way,” said her guardian ad litem, Klarysa Benge. “She has worked hard to get where she is today.”