MIDLAND, Texas — It was four years ago, that Will Culpepper and his wife decided to make a life changing decision that would have an impact on their life forever.
“Having three of them there that’s just the way god intended it to be,” says Culpepper.
He grew his family of four to a family of seven by adopting three siblings all at the same time.
At Addy's Hope, the same Adoption Agency the Culpepper's went through, Program Director, Jamie Poe says the adoption process is taking more time now than it did before. Usually the process takes six months to a year.
"I think we noticed it almost immediately probably within April or May 2020. After things have pretty much shut down because of COVID we just saw the process slow dramatically really in the beginning," says Poe.
From the beginning, the ripple effect begun.
"Court systems weren't hearing adoptions to finalize them. We had a backlog in court cases, we had a backlog and how long it was taking for parental rights to be terminated and just simply because the courts weren't able to operate the way that they were previously. Which then backed up CPS so we just seen this backlog," she says.
With agencies still uncertain of when normalcy will return, Will Culpepper has some advice for families in the same position he once was in.
"That moment will come for you, whether it's 8 months like it was for us or a 2 year process. God will know when that time comes and God's gonna know the perfect kid for you," says Culpepper.
Because it's the lasting impact that he says matters the most.
"I’m impacting somebody’s life because you are. But I think early on we felt that they were impacting us more than we were impacting them...even every day all of our kids they all impact us much greater than they’ll ever know," he says.