A single mother in Palm Beach County turned her household of one into a family of three this year, adopting sisters Ana and Payton after the girls could not reunite with their birth family. Latisha Williams, a single mother and foster parent, says what began as fostering quickly became something much bigger.
According to WPEC, Williams adopted the two girls after it became clear they would not be able to go back to their birth family. Williams said fostering quickly became a calling for her, and that a child's smile and love made her want to help. Her family now also includes a foster child whom Ana and Payton have welcomed as a brother, with Payton describing him as kind and Ana calling him funny, silly, and caring.
Finding Stability After Instability
For Ana, the adoption marked a turning point. She said it made her feel stable and like she had finally landed where she needed to be, per the WPEC report. Ana has also said her own experiences in foster care motivate her to support other children facing similar challenges, and that she has lived through some of the same things as the kids her family now helps.
Ana said she and her family work to help children who, in the past, did not get the support they needed. Williams has made that mission central to how she parents, prioritizing efforts to help children maintain connections with their birth families even after adoption. She has also said she tries to keep sibling relationships intact when brothers and sisters end up placed in different foster homes, the station's report notes.
More Than 300 Children Still Waiting
Williams hopes her family's story encourages others to look into fostering and adoption during National Adoption Month. The need is significant close to home: ChildNet says there are more than three hundred children waiting for a second chance to be part of a family across Broward and Palm Beach counties.
That backdrop lines up with a wave of adoption activity expected locally this month. The Boca Raton Tribune reported that ChildNet announced more than 20 children were expected to join their forever families at Adoption Day celebrations in Palm Beach and Broward counties, held under the theme “You Belong Here.”
In Broward County, 20 children were expected to be adopted on November 21, with roughly one in four expected to be adopted by a relative and the rest by foster families, according to the Tribune. In Palm Beach County, nine children were scheduled to join eight families on November 20, including five adoptions by relatives, three by foster parents, and one matched youth. Among the Broward cases highlighted, Harvey and Marc were expected to adopt two siblings, keeping the children together.
Help Is Available for Qualifying Families
Williams noted that adoption from foster care is free through programs offered in partnership with ChildNet and the Boca Raton community. Separately, Florida law allows for adoption assistance for children in the foster care system who have proven difficult to place because of their needs, according to the Florida Senate's 2025 statutes. That assistance may include a maintenance subsidy, medical and Medicaid assistance, and reimbursement of nonrecurring expenses tied to a legal adoption.
For Williams, the paperwork and programs are only part of the story. What started as a decision to foster has become a family built around keeping siblings together and helping children hold onto the people who mattered to them before — a mission she hopes more Palm Beach County families will consider taking on.
