As Father’s Day approaches, a gay Brooklyn couple is sharing their journey into fatherhood through foster care.
“Liron and I, when we met, it was very clear early on that we wanted to become parents, so as a gay couple you think about, ‘how am I going to form my family?'” says Jason Knight after he and his partner Liron Prioleau looked at all their options. They then decided on beginning the journey through foster care.
“It hit home because there are so many. We learned there are so many kids in foster care that just needed a safe space to be,” Prioleau recalls.
“We chose to work with the New York Foundling based on our specific research on their openness to LGBTQIA parents and their work with LGBTQIA youth,” Knight says.
Their lives then quickly changed.
“With our second round, it ended up becoming a permanent situation and that was lovely. We would have continued down the path I think for a while if it didn’t end in that way, but we met our sons in 2017 when they were a newborn and one. So we met them at the same time, and it was the best day of our lives and it completely changed our life,” Knight says.
“Going into Father’s Day, I will always have engrained in my soul those pictures that we took when the boys first came into our house,” Prioleau says.
Their family has grown since then.
“We are still foster parents, so the boy’s biological sister is with us as well and she is a joy,” Prioleau says.
Knight and Prioleau still remember their first Father’s Day and love to share their story for others, as it may inspire others to get involved in foster care.
“Father’s Day and being a gay dad, and all those things combined sort of ended up being this beautiful flower arrangement that everyone that takes time to put together, and it turns our beautifully,” Prioleau says.
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