Foster Parents Won’t Separate Set Of 5 Siblings And Ask Judge For Adoption Papers

Jan 18, 2023 by apost team

Raising children is no easy feat, but it’s a task that Will and Julie Rom were willing to take on. They had been fostering five young children, who were all related, for a couple of years. The Roms didn’t want the kids ever to be separated from each other, so they decided to take them all in and adopt all five of them in July 2017.

The Roms went from being known as the kids’ foster parents to their actual parents when they decided to adopt all of them and live together in the Cincinnati, Ohio, area. The children were of different ages, with the youngest being 2 years old and the oldest being 12 years old. All of them are either siblings or half-siblings, as they all have the same biological mother.

The children’s names and ages at the time included: 12-year-old William, 9-year-old Truth, 6-year-old Mariana, 3-year-old Keyora and 2-year-old KJ. The parents explained that there was no way they were going to split them up, so they knew they needed to fight to make sure they could keep all of them together.

Will and Julie took their case to the Hamilton County Probate Court to meet with Hamilton County Judge Ralph Winkler, a man who has continued to help other families stay together by approving the adoption papers. The Roms hoped that they would be able to adopt all five children. Read on to find out more about this heartwarming story of how one family’s determination to stay together brought them even closer than they were before.

“No way we were going to split them up,” Julie said, speaking with WKRC in July 2017. She and her husband did everything in their power to make sure they kept all five foster children together. “We can’t separate them, it’s about the kids,” Will said. Now, the foster children are simply known as their own children following the adoption papers being filed successfully.

Will and Julie took the children in as foster children between the years 2014 and 2016 before they decided to adopt all five of them at the same time. “There was never a second guess,” Will explained. “It was a package, a package deal.”

Judge Ralph Winkler oversaw the case and approved the adoption. “The kids would miss each other if we had to separate them and most of the time they do get separated, which is a sad thing for the children,” he said. “But these kids get to stay together forever.”

Friends, family members and a former teacher of the two oldest children were there to support the family and share the happy moment. Ann Boyle, a former teacher of the children, said, “I look at these two boys right now and they are alive right now. Their eyes are bright with wonder.”

Finally, the Roms and the five children were officially a united family. Not only did they get an upgrade in their family life, but in their home as well. Julie explained, “We went from a three-bedroom ranch to a five-bedroom two-story. But it’s for the kids. It’s best to keep them together.” What a beautifully happy and unified family.

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