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Maryland Couple Has Fostered Over 100 Children
For over 20 years, Maryland couple Sandra and Aaron Stockton have made it their lives’ work to help children in need. Sandra’s own mother had been in foster care, and she instilled in Sandra that “there’s always room for one more.”
Sandra shares with 7 News that when she met Aaron, she was widowed with four children and, “He had no kids, but he still married me and all of my kids.”
After almost 50 years of marriage, their claim to fame is being foster parents for half that time! In 1994, it was uncommon for a white child to be adopted by a Black family, but the Stocktons decided that they should change that.
“I was reading the newspaper in the kitchen about a white girl who needed a home,” Sandra recalls. “Back then, they didn’t adopt white children to Black families. It was history from there, kids.”
7 News shares that in Sandra and Aaron’s home, there are countless pictures of children posted on every wall.
“Some children we never hear from after they have gone, but others we do hear from over the years. And some are attached for life, and we are the family that they identify with, regardless of color or race,” Sandra says. Sandra also mentions that some of their foster children still call them mom and dad.
“We were therapeutic foster parents,” Aaron explains. “All of the kids came with some type of baggage between medical and mental.”
While it wasn’t always easy, the Maryland couple hung in there, giving each child the necessary care and concern, no matter their challenges. Aaron gives advice to those fostering or wanting to foster: “They are going to make mistakes when they get to you, but just don’t throw in the towel right away.”
While their story is unique, the Stocktons hope it inspires others to give back and foster children who need it. Thank you, Stocktons, for continuing to provide a safe haven for youth in care!