Thank you very much for that question.
For me personally, because my foster dad was in the midst of retiring, it was a huge financial strain all of a sudden. He wasn't expecting the retirement. It was more of a forced situation, which left him in a position financially where he couldn't adopt me. So to see even a portion of the support that's offered to foster parents go to adoptive parents, at least to allow them that adjustment period, would have been a large support. That would have meant that at 19, when I wanted one family heirloom—I wanted just a connection with that family who had been there my whole life—it wouldn't have been taken from me.
What Alisha said is incredibly powerful: “almost family”. Why should we ever have to say “almost family”? We should have a family. That's just it. We are social beings who deserve to have that. We have to remember as a society that sometimes the dollars and cents.... At the end of the day, it's to spend that time with our family, to be connected to somebody. We shouldn't have an “almost family”. If there's power to somehow change that so people can have “forever family” and have somewhere to go to for support....