This year, two Arrow families received the honor of a prestigious award from the Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services (TACFS), recognizing their commitment to children who needed them most. This statewide recognition reflects Arrow’s partnership with TACFS and the shared commitment of families, staff, volunteers and donors who make the work possible.
Arrow’s Adoptive Parent of the Year opened their home with courage and compassion, changing the trajectory of the child placed in their care. Our Foster Parents of the Year have taken in more than 20 placements and adopted a dozen children into their family.
We got the chance to catch up with the Buchanan’s, TACFS’ Foster Parents of the Year.
Mark and Adrian Buchanan stepped into fostering without knowing much about it. The Buchanan’s never set out to become a family of 12, they simply knew they wanted children and believed adoption would be the path.
The need they saw changed everything.
“We knew that we could fill a gap as we are open to the spectrum whatever need a child had,” Adrian Buchanan said. “We told the agency to send us the ones no one will take.”
Within a year, they welcomed the nine children they would later adopt. Over two decades, they have fostered 20 more and are finalizing adoption for two little boys placed in their home through Arrow.
“We nominated Mark and Adrian Buchanan for Foster Parents of the Year because they deserve it,” Arrow Program Director Leslie Robertson said. “The children they care for have intellectual disabilities and are medically fragile, they’re dedicated to the work and they are doing it all with joy.”
Their long journey made this year’s news of their TACFS Foster Parent of the year award, even more meaningful.
“Fostering and adopting is the most rewarding thing we’ve ever done in our life, it’s how we built our family, so to have this acknowledgement is pretty neat,” Mark Buchanan said.
The Buchanans see their award as a reminder of why they opened their home in the first place and why they continue to do so today.
“This journey has made us better humans for sure,” Adrian Buchanan said.
Their story highlights the impact of families who show up every day for children who need stability and love.