Awoken from sleep late one night, Lacey Dunkin received a phone call that would forever change the course of her life.
The call was from a social worker asking if Dunkin, of Fresno, California, would be able to accept four girls into emergency foster care. She said yes and within a few hours had a 5-year-old, a pair of 2-year-old twins, and a 1-year-old running around her home in the middle of the night.
Dunkin became interested in adopting a child in her mid-20s. She had always dreamed of becoming a mother, and according to Parents.com “didn’t view marriage as a prerequisite.” Dunkin lived with her parents at the time, and with their blessing, she went through training to become a foster mom.
Dunkin completed her foster care training in June 2011, but when she received the call in September of the same year, it was the first placement she had ever received. So, armed with multiple hours of training and a foster home certification, Dunkin took on the job of mother of four.
Camping fun! And no… They’re not models! (Not yet anyway).
A photo posted by Lacey (@laceydunkin) on
Dunkin cared for the four girls for nine months before they were reunited with their birth mother. But it took only one month for the mother to realize that she would not be able to properly care for her children. So she called Dunkin and asked if she would be willing to take the girls back and additionally, to take her fifth daughter, a baby who had been born the night Dunkin received the four girls.
According to Parents.com, Dunkin immediately agreed—but this wasn’t all. The birth mother was again pregnant with a baby girl.
Within two years Dunkin had adopted all six girls. Now Sophia, Natalie, Melanie, Kaylee, Lea, and Cecily all have a forever home, and the strong-hearted, 32-year-old Dunkin is officially a mother of six beautiful girls.
A photo posted by Lacey (@laceydunkin) on
“I want people to know that foster children are not bad, they’re not broken,” Dunkin told Parents. “Children are resilient, and want and need a loving home.