When a single father found himself to be an empty-nester, it would have been easy to think his child-rearing days were behind him.
Lamont Thomas (48) is divorced with two kids of his own, but took on a foster kid named Michael Perez back in 2001.
“[Michael] was a good young man and I just hated to see him in the system,” shared Lamont.
So he brought him into his home, eventually adopting Michael who now works as a nurse.
Bring Michael into his home, and family, was just the beginning for Lamont.
Over the next 15 years, the forever dad fostered more than 30 kids in the Buffalo, New York community and even adopted five of them . . . doing it all on his own.
Of the youth Lamont fostered, he says, “Every child that I have had, it was my goal to make a difference in their lives.”
Lamont, who works as a caterer, eventually decided to retire from fostering . . . or so he thought.
Even Lamont’s adopted son Michael didn’t expect him to “restart and do it all over again.”
But, Lamont did get back in the parenting game.
Lamont wound up taking in five siblings, all under the age of 6 years old.
He may have had other plans for these years of his life, but those plans got shattered with mayhem in the most loving way possible.
After learning about the young siblings who were going to be split up in the foster care system, Lamont wanted to step in to make sure they could stay together as a family.
Just last month, he officially adopted them all, saying, ‘I had to help them. They deserved to be raised together.”
Lamont does have a good support system through his church and friends, so he’s not going it totally solo this time around . . . and he is willing to keep stepping in to help for as long as it takes to make a difference.
