As a foster child, Regina Louise longed for a mother. Decades later, as an adult, she got her wish.

By Lisa Collier Cool

Radiant with excitement, Regina Louise hurried up the steps of a courthouse in Martinez, California, one November morning in 2003. She was elegantly dressed in linen and silk, with a garland of flowers around her neck to mark the special occasion: her adoption, at age 41. Inside the judge’s chamber, Regina was greeted by a silver-haired woman with a matching garland: Jeanne Kerr, 58. As family members and close friends looked on, the two women put their hands on a Bible and swore to be family forever. “It was overwhelming,” says Regina. “I’d been waiting my whole life for this.” Nearly six years later, the adoption has affected “everything from where we live to our careers and relationships with friends and relatives,” says Jeanne. “We’re still adjusting and evolving, but now it’s a given that we’re family.” That still amazes Regina, who was abandoned as an infant by her mother and grew up bouncing from one foster family to the next. In 1975, on the eve of her 13th birthday, Regina ran away from an abusive foster home and landed in Edgar Children’s Shelter in Martinez, where Jeanne, then 30 and single, was working as a counselor. Jeanne was captivated by the young teenager’s high-voltage personality. The connection was mutual. But Jeanne’s attempt to adopt Regina in 1978 was thwarted because, as a social worker put it, Jeanne couldn’t be a role model for an African-American child. “Because of the color of my skin, I missed out on having a mom,” says Regina. Time and distance kept the two apart, and they lost touch. But in 2003 Regina’s fortunes changed: After writing a book called Somebody’s Someone, about the foster-care system, she received an e-mail with the subject line, “I’m so proud of you, sweetheart.” Was it a cruel joke? Hands trembling, she opened it—it was a note from Jeanne. When the two women, now with families of their own, were reunited, they found that their old bond had never really died. Several months later, after much talking and visiting, Jeanne formally adopted Regina. Today the two live just a few minutes apart, and their mother-daughter relationship, full of the usual ups and downs, continues to grow stronger. Regina has become an advocate for the more than half-a-million kids in this country’s foster-care system, reminding audiences made up of social workers, judges and others who handle placements that every child needs an enduring bond with a caring adult. Foster-Care Kids: How You Can Help From giving a few hours to providing a home, there are many ways that you can help the approximately 500,000 children in the United States who are in foster care. Send a Care Package Foster children have few belongings of their own. As a result, many foster-care organizations, like My Stuff Bags Foundation, collect donations to provide them with duffel bags filled with blankets, school supplies, clothes and more. To donate, find a local group at nfpainc.org/reploc/ or go to mystuffbags.org. Give a Child a Vacation Help set up a week-long camp for children in foster care.  Royal Family Kids' Camps runs over 160 camps that are set up by churches across the country and staffed by volunteers. Learn more at rfkc.org. Mentor a Child Just spending a few hours with a child on a regular basis can have a profound impact on a young life. To find a program near you, go to mentoring.org. (You can often request to be paired up with a foster child.) Teens who are aging out of the foster-care system, in particular, need a lot of encouragement and guidance. If you want to mentor a teenager age 16 to 18 who needs help applying to a college or training program, check out educatetomorrow.org. Send E-Mails Have a crazy schedule? Be a virtual mentor! The Orphan Foundation of America matches screened, trained volunteers, who commit for two years to exchanging weekly e-mails with current and former foster kids, ages 16 to 23. Find out more at vmentor.com. Sponsor Scholarships The Orphan Foundation also offers scholarships to former foster-care kids so that they can go to college or vocational school. To donate, visit orphan.org. Be a Respite-Care Provider Give foster parents a break by taking care of their kids for a few hours or days. Contact your local child-welfare agency (listings can be found at familiesforall.org/states). Advocate for a Child Volunteer to become a court-appointed special advocate. After being trained, you’ll be assigned to advocate for one abused or neglected child as his or her case makes its way through the court and child-welfare system. The goal: to make sure that these kids don’t get lost and languish in our legal system or in an inappropriate group or foster home. To learn more and find a CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) program near you, go to nationalcasa.org.