75-year-old Linda Herring has spent the majority of her life caring for hundreds of children in foster care, and she was recently honored with a resolution of appreciation by her local government.
Over the course five decades, Linda has taken in dozens of foster children while running a home daycare and working nights as a custodian. She has given kids a home no matter how old they were or if they had special needs, and she would often travel to pick up a child in need.
Herring to CNN: “I would just love [my foster kids] like they were my own, probably more than I should. I cried when the kids would leave my home, no matter how long they had been there.”
Herring said she was first inspired to help foster children when her best friend began providing shelter to teenage girls. Herring worked with the state and decided to provide homes for kids with medical needs.
Along with her five biological children, Herring has adopted three children who were once under her care. Anthony Herring was one of those children.
He told CNN: “I appreciate being adopted even more today as a parent than I did when I was a child. I’m forever grateful for the life I was given. She and Dad have both taught me that family isn’t determined by blood — it’s who you have in your life to love.”
According to the Adoption Network, about 428,000 children are currently in foster care in the United States and more than 114,000 cannot be returned to their families.