SOS Children’s Villages Florida, a foster care community in Broward County, shares a “Tale of Two Dads” to commemorate the true meaning of family as we celebrate this Father’s Day with a heartwarming story of love and fatherhood.
It all began in 2009 when Eryc Allen, a former foster child himself, joined SOS as an intern in the Human Resources department. He became familiar with SOS over the years while growing up in foster care, and two of his sisters had lived at the Village for several years. To this day, Eryc says that he has been profoundly impacted by not only growing up without his mother, but the absence of his siblings during his childhood moved him in such a way that it shaped his entire concept of family. It was at this point that he knew at the deepest level inside himself that he wanted to create his own family one day.
Over the years Eryc’s career at SOS grew to where he now serves as the Residential Manager overseeing all of the foster parents in the Village. It was during this time that he met and formed a tight bond with a sibling group who had been with us for three years, and whose parental rights had been terminated through the courts. Because there were so many children, their grandmother was unable to care for all of them, and she could not simply select one or two amongst them. Such is some of the sadness which comes with foster care.
As Eryc grew to know the children, the bond between them began to form. As it grew, he began to seriously consider what life would be like if they were all to become a family. At this point Eryc approached his partner, Jeremy about the possibility of them becoming parents to four children. Jeremy initially expressed apprehension, but after becoming a mentor to one of their now sons, he was fully on board. The two got married and began to prepare their home to welcome their two daughters Kamaria 13, and Keila 8 and sons Keir 12, Jerrick 9.
Join Eryc, Jeremy, and their four children for a very special Father’s Day Zoom webinar on Thursday June 18th from 12:00 noon to 12:30 pm. You will have an extraordinary glimpse into the lives of a family who has made the transition from foster care to a unit of lifetime of love and support. You will hear from the kids and their dads on how this union has brought unparalleled happiness to their lives. https://forms.gle/h7G5t1YyevtSgfGJA