MIDLAND, Texas — Tyler and Keri Vaught have been wanting to start a family.
"We were initially looking at adoption. We can’t have kids biologically, so we started to look at other options," Tyler Vaught, foster dad said.
They came across Buckner Midland and decided to become foster parents.
This was affirmed even further when they learned about foster care in West Texas.
"89% of kids that go into foster care out here are sent somewhere else and that was mind-blowing to me that 9 out of 10 kids don’t stay here in Midland Odessa when this is their home," Keri Vaught, foster mom said.
They say the process and training were unexpectedly easy and seamless.
"It was nice to do it virtually too because we both do have such demanding full-time jobs that we both love and so it was nice to be able to do both, like we could continue life like normal in a very un-normal situation," Keri said.
They met 6 or 7 other couples and their instructor on zoom weekly for about 2-3 hours.
Going over things like how not having parents can affect children, how to safe-proof their home, trauma training, and how the foster care system works.
Keri and Tyler wanted children newborn to 3 years old 1 or 2 of them if they were siblings.
They were overjoyed when they finally finished everything last month.
"I cried, I was like finally. It was an emotional time because it sets you up now. It could happen at any point … At any point now you guys could get a kid, so for me that was …. It makes my heart race," Tyler said.
And it was not but a few weeks later that they got their first placement.
A 7-month-old baby girl.
"She’s amazing. You fall very quickly for them," Tyler said.
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To learn more about Buckner's new virtual foster care certification program, visit their website here.