Couple Adopts Four Siblings Via Zoom: ‘We’re a Family’

A Texas technology-savvy couple adopted four siblings on Tuesday over the Zoom video chat platform.

Yves and Khalila Hughes, who both work as technology specialists, not only adopted the four children, they hope to use their technology skills to help more children get adopted.

“I started to hear about the great need,” Yves Hughes Jr. said from his home in Plano, as he recalled discussions with his wife, Khalila, about the number of children in foster homes.

WXIA reported that there are an estimated 30,000 kids in Texas foster homes, and nearly half a million children are in foster homes across the U.S.

“We always talked about adoption,” said Khalila. “It’s something very important to us.”

It was so important to the Hughes family that in 2018, they became foster parents, intending to offer their home to one older child.

But instead of one child, he was offered four. The four children — Nyla, 15, Marcus, 14, Aaliyah, 8, and Zayden, 6. — were removed from a neglectful home.

The Hughes family did not turn down a single one of the children.

Judge Cyndi Wheless presided over the adoption ceremony from a Collin County, Texas, courtroom. At the same time, the Hughes family joined from their living room via Zoom, as well as members of their extended family.

“I just wanted them to know that we love them, they’re safe, we have a home, and we’re a family,” Yves Hughes said.

Zoom adoptions have been on the rise because of the coronavirus pandemic.

One foster family adopted their second child over Zoom in an August adoption ceremony, and a two-year-old boy was adopted over Zoom in April after the coronavirus canceled in-person court hearings.