The adoption meant the siblings would no longer have to wonder which foster home they would live in or when they might see their brothers and sisters again.
Carter said he felt relieved after the process was completed. He also emphasized that he wanted the children to know that he was their father permanently and that they would not have to experience the same kind of uncertainty again. https://www.fox19.com
The five children were now one household.
A family that had once been divided across multiple foster homes was living together.
The noise that came with five children was something Carter welcomed.
In an interview with ABC News, he joked about the dramatic increase in noise in his home but said he preferred that sound because it meant the children were together and happy. ABC News
For someone who had once experienced the silence of being separated from his own siblings, that noise carried a very different meaning.
It meant family.
A Father Who Learned From What He Never Had
Carter's story became especially powerful because of the unusual way his past and present were connected.
He was not an outsider looking at the foster-care system and deciding that he wanted to help.
He had been inside it.
He knew what separation felt like.
He knew what it meant to grow up without the security of a permanent adoptive family.
CBS News later reported that Carter aged out of foster care without ever being adopted. After turning 18, he eventually took custody of a younger sister and later became guardian of a younger brother. CBS News
In other words, Carter's commitment to children did not begin when he adopted the five siblings.
It had been developing for years.
His own experience had taught him that children need consistency—not only a place to sleep, but adults who tell them they will still be there tomorrow.
That perspective became central to the way he parented his adopted children.
CBS News reported that Carter described his parenting philosophy as essentially learning how to be a good father by experiencing the absence of one. He wanted to give his children the things he had wished for when he was young. CBS News
The idea is simple but profound.
Sometimes people who grow up without something become intensely aware of its value.
For Carter, that something was family stability.
The Meaning of “Forever”
Adoption is often described as the creation of a permanent family.
For these five children, permanence carried a particularly important meaning.
They already had a biological family connection. What they lacked was the ability to experience that relationship consistently under one roof.
Carter's adoption did not erase everything they had experienced before.
It did not magically undo the months of separation.
It did not change the fact that foster care had already shaped their childhood.
But it gave them the opportunity to build a different future.
They could grow up together.
They could argue over ordinary things, celebrate birthdays together, share meals, attend school events, laugh about family memories and eventually look back on childhood as something they experienced alongside one another.
Those ordinary experiences can be easy to overlook.
For children who have spent time apart, however, ordinary family life can be extraordinary.
Federal child-welfare research has emphasized that sibling relationships can provide continuity throughout childhood and beyond. Studies summarized by Child Welfare Information Gateway have also found associations between joint sibling placements and positive permanency outcomes, including adoption and guardianship. Child Welfare Information Gateway
That makes the Carter family's story part of a much larger conversation about what children need when they enter foster care.