Kristy and Ryan Anderson always knew they wanted to foster or adopt. The conversation started while they were dating, fueled by their personal histories. Kristy was raised by a stepfather who loved her as his own and she spent seven years working in a neonatal intensive care unit caring for infants born addicted to drugs. Ryan grew up watching his father, who was adopted as a baby, conduct adoption studies.
The couple expected to expand their family naturally, but fertility struggles forced them to turn to IVF. After three grueling retrieval rounds, they were blessed with one single embryo that became their son. When he turned two, the Andersons knew it was time to open their home to another child, though they never anticipated how quickly their lives would change.
Days after receiving their foster care license, the couple faced a whirlwind of major life events. Kristy discovered she was pregnant, which temporarily placed their license on inactive status due to agency policy. Soon though, she suffered a miscarriage and required surgery.
Then, the phone rang one night around 9:30 p.m., it was Arrow.
A two-week-old baby girl needed an immediate placement. The system was overwhelmed, and there were no available foster families left in the Golden Triangle region. If the Andersons could not take her, the infant was going to be sent to a placement in Houston.
“They literally had nowhere for her,” Kristy Anderson said. ” If we could not take her, she was going to be sent to a placement in Houston.”
The Andersons took the leap, welcoming the baby girl into their home while still processing their own grief. What was supposed to be a temporary placement quickly became a permanent fixture in their hearts, though the journey was far from simple.
Texas is a reunification state, meaning the primary goal of the foster care system is to return youth to their biological parents whenever safe and possible. For months, the Andersons navigated the emotional tightrope of loving a child who might not stay.
“This whole time, all these months, it’s a tug of war on your heart,” Ryan Anderson said. “You go through the emotional torment of loving a baby that isn’t yours so you must be prepared for it to be hard and a lot of work, but you must think about the youth. It’s worth all of it for them.”
For nearly a year, their lives revolved around caseworkers, court-appointed special advocates, dental checkups, doctor visits, and weekly biological family visitations. Then, when the baby girl was 10 months old, the couple learned she would become their forever daughter.
She recently celebrated her first birthday just one day before the couple shared their story with Arrow!
Transitioning from a household with an only child to a family of four—two parents and two children—required a complete shift in the family dynamics. Ryan explains that the rhythm of life changed instantly, requiring a tag-team system where he and Kristy split daily responsibilities to manage the busy schedule.
While the Andersons found their perfect match with their first placement, they emphasize that foster care requires a community, not just individual families. The couple relies heavily on themselves, Arrow Ministries and a very small personal support network, which can make scheduling a challenge.
Ryan noted that full-time fostering is not the only way to help children in need. The system has a critical shortage of respite providers who offer short-term care for up to 14 days, as well as certified babysitters who can step in when regular life events happen.
“Anybody that thinks they might have a heart for it or thinks that they can do it, help is needed more than people realize,” Ryan Anderson said.
Without help from their friend at church, the pair said they would have missed a family member’s wedding.
“Even if someone has the heart to do it but doesn’t think that they can do the full-time obligation, there’s still a need everywhere” Ryan Anderson said. “The youth is our next generation so depending on what you want this world’s future to look like, it starts with pouring into the youth right now.”
The Andersons hope their story inspires others, individuals or families, in the community to explore the world of foster care, respite care or support services during Foster Care Awareness Month.
“We’ve only changed one life,” Ryan says. “But one life can be a huge difference for the future, and you don’t know what that one life could to turn out to be.”
To learn more about the Anderson family and their journey through the foster care system, view a separate interview with the Beaumont Enterprise.