05/26/2026
“Over 20 years ago, this sweet family came into my life by way of the county-run parks/rec program I attended every day after school and during the summers.
Coach Eddy and Coach Judy were my coaches there. They showed me that you didn’t need to have much to show others love and kindness. For a couple years, they included me in weekends with their kids, large family gatherings, and family vacations. I felt loved, wanted, and seen. I was even able to relearn some Spanish and learn bits and pieces of my culture that I had missed out on. Alex, Abby, Brandon, and Julissa had become like siblings to me. Judy and Eddy had become mom and pops to me. Their family became the closest thing that resembled an actual family similar to what I had seen on TV back then. I remember the sadness I felt every time they had to drop me back off at my foster care placement… a place void of any love or safety and one filled with too many secrets.
Then at age 16, this sweet family was approved to take me in once my foster care placement was shut down by the state. However, by then, I had already been in foster care for over 10 years. I felt too broken and I struggled hard. I didn’t know how to be apart of a “family” full-time. I had already become too self-reliant. I had a wall up and I retreated inward. I was also walking through hard things that I didn’t know how to talk about.
One year. That’s how long I lived with them before there was a placement “disruption”. Looking back, I know I didn’t make it easy and I’m sure they were probably waaayyy in over their heads🤣 But their presence and love back then represented God’s goodness and His hand over my life when I had yet to realize it. All these years later, my heart is full of gratitude for this sweet family’s place in my life and I often reflect on the power of forgiveness and redemption in our story!
It’s such a treat to still have them apart of my life so many years later and I always love making it back to Tampa to celebrate special moments with this sweet family of mine❤️ I love them to the moon and back!”
Thank you, Georgina, for sharing, and for your advocacy for children still in the system. 🪽
