Some people give back so much, even though they themselves didn’t get much to begin with.
When Barry Farmer was a growing up, he wasn’t raised by his parents. He went through the foster care system and was eventually raised by his grandmother.
Then when he was 21, Barry got his foster care license and immediately started paying back the kindness that the system and his grandmother gave him when he was little. Barry took in a boy named Jaxon.
But he never could have imagined that he’d be a single dad with three kids before he was 30.
“I look in the mirror all the time, and if you would have told me 10 years ago that this would happen, I wouldn’t believe you,” Barry said. “I wished to be a father, but it wasn’t going to be this soon.”
Barry’s journey toward fatherhood started as soon as Jaxon arrived.
“My oldest has been calling me Dad since the day I got him. I really didn’t know how to respond to it — I was so young at the time. And I just said, ‘OK, I guess we’re gonna do this. I guess this is the role that I must play now.’ Knowing that the adoption was very final — that means I’m finally his father. He accepted me as his father. So those moments are unforgettable, ” Barry told CBS 6.
As Jaxon grew up, he wanted siblings, and Barry knew there were many other children growing up in the foster care system that needed parents. So in 2013 and 2014, he adopted Xavier and then Jeremiah.
While most adoptive parents adopt babies, Barry who is now 30 and works for the Richmond, Virginia school system adopted older children. Now, he recommends it to anyone looking to adopt.
“Older children are the babies that you’re looking for,” Barry says. “There are a lot of firsts to the experience as well: You can still have your first bike ride, your first trip to the beach, first roller coaster, first day of school. All of that can be experienced through foster care adoptions.”
When asked if he gets looks from strangers, Barry said, “Skin does not separate us; it does not define our family. It’s just a part of our family. So when it comes to things of, you know, pushback or ignorance, we’re really not paying attention to that, because they don’t know us.”
What a big heart! It’s hard to imagine a better father than Barry!
Watch a video about Barry and his wonderful family here:
[arve url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGGZ4fpzYQA” /]
“Fatherhood has brought me lots of joy. I can’t imagine my sons not being with me,” Barry says.
Share to pay tribute to this exceptional father and the wonderful boys he is raising.
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