He wanted to belong to the Gills.
And they wanted him to belong to them.
The adoption became official in 2020.
Andrew was 12 when his story began attracting wider public attention.
The legal paperwork changed his status.
But emotionally, much of the transformation had already happened.
Joc was no longer simply the foster family's biological son.
He was Andrew's brother.
And Andrew was no longer simply the child staying in Joc's home.
He was family.
Best Friends Become Brothers
There is something particularly meaningful about the order in which Andrew and Joc's relationship developed.
They did not become friends because adults told them they were brothers.
They became brothers after they had already chosen to be friends.
Before the legal connection, there was Minecraft.
There were games.
There were snacks.
There were conversations.
There was the ordinary rhythm of being children together.
Andrew's adoption simply made permanent something that had already been forming.
Youth Villages later reported that the bond between the boys continued to grow after the adoption. In a 2022 update, Dominique said that she loved watching their relationship become even deeper as brothers.
The family grew as well.
The Gills welcomed another baby boy in 2021, and they continued fostering other children. Dominique and her mother also opened a childcare center in 2020.
In other words, Andrew's adoption did not mark the end of the family's involvement in foster care.
It became part of a much larger commitment.
Their home remained busy.
Children continued coming through their doors.
And the family that had initially believed it would provide temporary care discovered that one particular foster placement had permanently changed its own definition of family.
Youth Villages reported that Andrew was doing well after the adoption. Dominique said that he frequently expressed gratitude to the family for accepting him and staying with him.
Those comments reveal something important about his experience.
For Andrew, being adopted was not simply about gaining parents on a legal document.
It was about discovering that difficult moments did not automatically make people leave.
Why Permanency Matters
Andrew's story is deeply personal, but it also exists within a much larger foster-care system.
The United States tracks children in foster care through AFCARS, a federally mandated system administered through the Children's Bureau. The database records information about children for whom public child welfare agencies have responsibility, including demographic information, previous stays in care, placement details, permanency goals and adoption data. The federal archive has continued releasing updated foster-care datasets through fiscal year 2025.
Behind every entry in those datasets is an individual child.
Some enter care briefly.
Others spend years moving among foster homes, relatives, group settings or potential adoptive placements.
For children who remain in the system for long periods, the question of permanence can become increasingly important.
A home is not merely a location.
For a child, permanence can mean knowing who will attend school events.
Knowing where birthdays will be celebrated.
Knowing where belongings can stay.
Knowing that an argument does not mean another move is coming.
Knowing that someone will still answer the phone years later.
This does not mean adoption automatically erases trauma or that every child's emotional struggles disappear once legal permanency is achieved.
Child welfare experts specifically caution against that assumption.
Children can carry grief, fear, identity questions and memories of previous loss into adoptive families. Some need ongoing counseling or trauma-informed services. Adoptive parents may also need support to understand behaviors connected to earlier experiences.