Kate was living in a cardboard box and addicted to drugs. Her twins were placed in foster care at birth. She could have continued down that path of destruction, instead, she chose to fight for her life to get her kids back. Watch to see how the love and support of her children's foster mom changed everything for her and her family. This is a powerful story of restoration and reunification.

 Click here to learn more about reunification in foster care. 

The transcript of the video:

Foster mom:

My name is Shelly Blake, and I'm a foster mom.

Bio mom:

And I'm Kate Drake and I'm a bio mom.

Foster mom:

Kate and I have known each other for almost four years.

Bio mom:

I was homeless in Fort Worth. Um, using every drug that I could get my hands on. And when I found out I was pregnant, um, I knew that it wouldn't be the best thing for me to attempt to try to keep them, um, after some debates, it came down to, okay, well, I'm gonna have to give 'em up for adoption and I have to get clean. I got arrested. I stayed incarcerated. And, um, up until the point where I was like a couple of weeks away from giving birth, I don't know how, but I got, um, they went from no bond to giving me a bond about three weeks before I had the babies and my mom, um, opened a new credit card and got me bonded out. And she came and got me and I stayed to myself and her place until I had the babies.

Bio mom:

And I remember when they, you know, told me what was gonna happen, that there was gonna be a foster parent stepping in. And, um, I remember me and my husband went, we were washing our hands ready to go back to see the babies. And all these nurses approached and said, Hey, you know, the the foster moms back there, you can't go back there. Um, and I immediately got mad. pretty angry. And, uh, on the defense. And then the head nurse went and talked to Shelly and Shelly said, you know, I'd love to meet them.

Foster mom:

I asked the case worker that afternoon if I could meet the twin's birth mom. It's funny because I often get the same response from caseworkers. Usually, foster moms don't really wanna meet by moms, but if you want to, then we can arrange it. And I said, I just feel like she would wanna meet the person who will be taking care of her babies during this period of time.

Bio mom:

And then I, you know, we go back there and first thing she does is stand up and hug me and me and Shelly just stayed there. Um, holdin, she had a baby, I had a baby and we just talked about different things. And, you know, I told her my whole situation and

Foster mom:

It was at that point, I thought Kate wants to be a mom. She really wants to be a mom. She's gonna do what she has to, to be a good mom. After that, you and David started having visits at the CPS office.

Bio mom:

It seems really like a lot. Like they give you this big pamphlet and they're like, you gotta do all these things. And it seems like, you know, like impossible, like there's no way we're gonna get all that done. That's a lot of stuff. And it really wasn't as much as I thought it was,

Foster mom:

We had a ton of support by friends. I mean, our, our church has been so, so good to us as foster parents and even like accepting David and Kate, they would, they would go trunk or treat yeah. With us. And every time I asked a caseworker if we could do something extra with them, we were told yes. I mean, they, can we, after the visit, can we take 'em out to eat and take 'em home? Well, sure. Yeah. They were very encouraging to us to build that relationship. And I, I appreciated that so much.

Bio mom:

We got sober. Um, we just, you know, we both wanted to get sober, but we didn't really, I mean, we didn't have the means in Fort Worth. We didn't have any support system. Um, and I don't think either one of us knew it could be done. If, if we had just come back here and gotten, it was easier just to keep doing what we were doing daily. I didn't wanna disappoint Shelly. You know, she, she was so adamant that we were gonna succeed that, um,

Bio mom:

You know, I wanted to succeed for us, but I also there's times when you would think, you know, that's really stressful. I might stress out and, you know, cause addicts don't need much to re to use. Um, it could be a rainy day and you want it to be sunny. That is a good reason to use, you know? And she's always, I mean, we didn't have to worry about much of anything because she opened so many doors. It, it's hard to think that where it was years ago to where it is now, like it does get better and it keeps getting better. Everything that could have been, uh, like a big roadblock was made easier because of all the people that came in and wanted to be supportive. And a lot of it wouldn't have been possible without her attitude going into it, of wanting us to succeed, um, and wanting to be supportive and, you know, and understanding. I mean,

Foster mom:

Gradually, they just started spending more time with David and Kate and less time with us. So we would, the twins would spend like a night with them and then they would come back to our house for two days. And, and that was spread out over like a month-long process a month or six week process. It wasn't instant. So during that period of time, we did the final, "okay, they're yours". Yeah, it, it was right. I mean, it just seemed right. I thought it would be so wrong for us to still have those babies. Kate is one of the most courageous, if not the most courageous person, you know, she talks about all the things that we did and that our friends did, but I don't know that you and David fully understand what you all have done. Thinking about everything she's been through all the trauma in her life. Um, she gives me hope. She has given me courage to reach out to people who aren't just like me.

Bio mom:

I, I mean, I like my family, but I love her and her family. You know, I feel like I have another family that I never had before. Um, my children have a wonderful relationship and, uh, I, my life has been forever changed and in a wonderful way that, um, I have a relationship and a bond that I hope to never, ever lose. And, um, I, she's an amazing woman and she's shown me and still shows me how I can try to be a better person, um, going forward in life. Just, um, I hope, I hope that someday I can be as genuine as her.