A Daphne couple’s creative Christmas card announcing plans to adopt through the foster care system has drawn national attention, turning a personal family milestone into a viral moment that’s put a spotlight on foster adoption.
Cara and Eric Taylor, married nearly five years, decided early in their marriage that adoption would be part of their family’s story. “We felt adopting through the foster care system was where we needed to be. God was calling us,” Cara Taylor said. Cara, 31, works at Regions Bank and also works as a photographer, while Eric, 27, serves as an Army recruiter currently based at the Army Career Center office in the Eastern Shore Center. The couple, both originally from Florida, has also lived in Kentucky and Texas before settling in Daphne.
Rather than simply announcing the adoption to friends and family, the Taylors wanted a way to bring attention to the foster care system itself. They designed a Christmas card featuring a collection of small children’s shoes, a visual meant to represent the child who would eventually join their family. “To me, sitting there with a little sign saying ‘We are adopting’ just didn’t do it,” Cara said. “We wanted to bring attention to the foster care system as well.”
The image took off after Cara shared it with Together We Rise, a nonprofit focused on supporting children in foster care. The card quickly became a hit on Facebook, and the buzz eventually led to an interview request from the Today show. Cara said the viral attention wasn’t the goal, but she has welcomed it. “It definitely was not our intent for it to go viral. But if it has people talking about and looking into the foster care system, I’m excited it’s going that way,” she said.
The Taylors were set to begin ten weeks of state-required training at the end of January to prepare for fostering and eventually adopting a child. During that process, social workers conduct background checks and evaluate the couple’s home before compiling a file that will be shared with agencies across the state as officials work to match the Taylors with a child. The couple said they aren’t focused on a specific age, gender or ethnicity, but are looking for the right match for their family, and they’re hopeful the adoption process will be complete by summer.
Cara said she hopes their story encourages others to consider foster adoption. “I truly believe every child deserves to grow up feeling loved,” she said. “These kids didn’t ask for this to happen to them.”