Five-Year-Old Adopted After Spending Almost 2,000 Days in Foster Care

What was supposed to be just a temporary, overnight visit turned into a forever home for five-year-old Cece Moore.

After spending 1,954 days in foster care, Cece was adopted by her caretakers Cindy and Jeffrey Moore. Cece has been in their care since she was two months old, Good Morning America reported.

“Once we saw her cute little face, we jokingly told them, ‘If you need a place long term, let us know,'” Cindy Moore told Good Morning America. “The next day, they said, ‘You know, if you’re serious about it, we could really use a long-term placement for her.’ And yeah, here we are over five years later, and that long-term placement has now become a forever home for her.”

A New York family is celebrating after they officially adopted a 5-year-old girl who was placed with them through the foster care system years earlier.https://t.co/rb7V5Wtq2u

— Good Morning America (@GMA) May 21, 2023

The Moores started fostering in 2015 after dealing with infertility issues. They have welcomed over 30 kids into their Depew, New York, home.

“It’s really, really gratifying for us. We’re very excited about it. Every time we take a child in our house, you never really know how it’s going to pan out long term by the time you start,” Jeffrey Moore told Good Morning America. “We had very high hopes in the beginning that we would get to keep Cece long term and be able to adopt her into our family, and we’re ecstatic that it finally, finally got to that point.”

In addition to Cece, the Moores have adopted two other children, and they are in the process of adopting Cece’s half-brother, who has been in their care. 

The Chief Development Officer of Eerie County Child and Family Services said there are 300 kids in the county awaiting their forever home, WKBW reported.

“Children need safety and that’s what we hope to provide through foster care,” Czopp said. “Through adoption, or unification through a biological parent where we work with the home, foster home, and biological parents.”

For Cindy Moore, being a foster parent has been life-changing, and she encourages those interested to seek out more information.

“People’s first response [is] always, ‘I could never give them back.’ And my response to them is always, ‘Well, they’re not yours. You’re assisting and you’re just helping take care of them while they’re in a time of need,'” Moore said. “Something that I think that people need to go into foster care knowing is that the primary goal is always reunification with the family. And if that doesn’t happen, then you can go down the adoption route.”