Adopting is the coolest thing Maria Clark says she’s done.

“I think as kids we always say we wanna do things or we really aspire to be something, I always wanted to adopt," Clark said.

That’s because there’s a lot of adoption in Clark’s family. Her maternal grandmother aged out of the foster care system, her father was adopted from Germany and Clark and her two siblings were adopted from Colombia. The first child she and her husband adopted was Aurora.

"It was surreal, to be honest with you. We got a phone call about her and met her for the first time on Valentine's Day. And when we went to the hospital to meet her for the first time, she grabbed a hold of my husband's hand and it was over for him. He started crying. So prior to Aurora, we had four boys. So it was definitely a different experience for him to have his first girl," Clark said.

The Clarks then adopted Leila in 2020 and Sean in 2022. They have other two children living with them who are waiting on an adoption date and as well as a baby who is currently in foster care with them. Clark says every adoption experience is different. Going into it, she says it’s important to remember what the role of a foster parent is. She says the idea of foster care is to reunite the child with a biological family.

"You really have to have the right mindset. It's not a matter of rescuing or fixing. I think it's just a matter of loving. So you're not meant to change these any of these kids. These kids will change you more than you change them. You just have to love them for however long that you have them," Clark said.

With that in mind, she says it’s important to be patient.

"Whatever outcome there is, whether it's reuniting the child, reuniting with their biological family or with you adopting, that's the ending that's meant to be. Sometimes it's really, really difficult to see that when you're in the thick of it, but that's what's meant to be," Clark said.

As for Maria and her family’s future, they're not planning to adopt again soon.

"We're out of space. I think we finally had to break down and buy a sprinter van so that we could fit our entire family in one vehicle so that we weren't splitting up the vehicles. Would we love more kids will certainly will take on as many kids as we can, you know, but we're out of space in our van," she said.

Maria says there is a need for more foster families, foster parents and people who want to adopt. If you are interested in adoption, you can learn more on the New York State Office of Children and Family Services website.