Lafferty finds the gateway to a better life through foster care
By Ashleigh Plemper
Farmer Staff Writer
(Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series that explores the need of foster care families.)
Due to each person’s involvement in foster care, their experience can be a blessing or a curse.
For William Lafferty, he considers himself one of the lucky ones after what may have felt like a bitter end turned out to be a better beginning because of foster care.
“My biological mother was not mentally capable of taking care of me,” he says.
Lafferty’s experience with foster care began when he was just a baby when health and safety concerns between his parents led to a custody battle. It was then that the state got involved and determined that neither one of them were fit for parenthood.
“They lost all rights and that’s when I went to Norman, Okla.,” he says.
It was there that Lafferty would be paired with his foster family, who would care for him for over a year.
“From my experience, it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me,” he says. “I don’t really know where I would’ve ended up.”
With many children that aren’t fortunate enough to share Lafferty’s experience with foster care and adoption, today, he feels blessed for the timing of his placement.
“My foster family treated us all like family,” he says.
Though he was too young to remember his childhood days, Lafferty says the family made a picture book for him which served as fun-filled, loving evidence of their time together.
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