The decision was enormous.
Adopting one child is a major lifelong commitment.
Adopting five children at once meant transforming nearly every part of Carter's daily existence.
Five children meant five sets of needs, routines, school responsibilities, personalities, fears, friendships, medical appointments, meals, clothes, celebrations and bedtime conversations.
It meant noise.
A lot of noise.
Carter later joked to Good Morning America that the noise level in his life had increased dramatically. But he preferred the noise because it meant the children were together and happy.
There was something else the new household offered that was harder to measure.
Continuity.
The children would not have to schedule a visit to see their own brothers and sisters.
They would not have to count the months since they had last been together.
They would not have to repeatedly ask adults when they might see one another again.
Their sibling relationships could become part of ordinary life again.
Breakfast.
School mornings.
Arguments over toys.
Birthdays.
Homework.
Television.
Bedtime.
Being a family did not have to be a special event on a calendar.
It could simply become normal.
Why Sibling Relationships Matter
Carter's instinct that keeping the children together mattered is consistent with guidance from child-welfare experts.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Child Welfare Information Gateway has emphasized the importance of sibling relationships for children in foster care and adoption.
Its guidance notes that siblings may provide emotional continuity during periods of enormous uncertainty. For some children, a brother or sister may be one of the few people who shares memories of their original family and understands the events that brought them into care.
Federal child-welfare guidance says placing siblings together should generally be a priority when it is safe and appropriate. When joint placement is not possible, maintaining regular contact can be important.
Research summarized by the Child Welfare Information Gateway has also linked joint sibling placement with several positive outcomes. Studies have found associations between placing siblings together and higher rates of permanency through reunification, adoption or guardianship. Some research has also found that sibling connections can function as a protective factor for children's mental health.
At the same time, child-welfare professionals recognize that every case is different. There can be clinical or safety reasons why certain siblings should not be placed together.
But practical obstacles are common as well.
Large sibling groups can be especially difficult to place in one foster home.
A foster parent caring for five children must have sufficient space, resources, licensing approval and the ability to meet the needs of each child. Child Welfare Information Gateway identifies large sibling-group size and a shortage of suitable foster homes among the challenges agencies may face when trying to keep siblings together.
That helps explain why Carter's willingness to adopt all five children was significant.
According to adoption worker Stacey Barton, Carter was the foster parent who was willing and able to take the entire group.
His own childhood, she said, had made him acutely aware of why keeping brothers and sisters together mattered.
Adoption Day
On October 30, 2020, the uncertainty finally ended.
During an Adoption Day event in Hamilton County, Ohio, Carter became the legal father of all five children.
Marionna was 10.
Robert was 9.
Makayla was 8.
Giovanni was 5.
Kiontae was 4.
Robert Carter was 29.
A household that once consisted of one young single man was now a family of six.
For Carter, the legal finalization carried a message far larger than paperwork.
He wanted the children to understand permanence.
Local media quoted him saying he was relieved that the process was complete and that the children would now know he was their father for life.
He reportedly reassured them regularly that he was not temporary.