Brought Together by Love

When Chriselle Became A Clark

Missy still remembers bringing her little girl home from the hospital like it was yesterday. When her and her husband, Wendell, began fostering through 4KIDS Treasure Coast in 2014, Chriselle was the first child they welcomed into their home. When Missy laid eyes on her for the first time, Chriselle had been in the NICU for four weeks without one visitor.

From what felt like one instant to the next, Missy was soon being brought out to her car in a wheelchair with this tiny baby wrapped in her arms. “As the nurses helped me load the car with all the formula, bottles and diapers, they kept asking me if I knew what I was doing…so many times that I actually started to get nervous,” Missy recalled. Though Missy already had two kids of her own, the nurses explained that Chriselle had been drugexposed and would need a lot of extra attention.

Over the next two and a half years, the Clark’s fell in love with Chriselle. They bonded with her and helped her work through her sensory issues. Every week, they drove her to visit with her sister, who was being raised by her maternal grandmother, and to her many doctors appointments. After 19 months and many court dates later, Chriselle’s case plan goal was changed by the courts from reunification to adoption.

“Once we realized that it was possible that she would need a forever home there was no hesitation that we wanted to be her forever family,” Missy shared.

In March of 2017, Chriselle officially became a Clark. Since her adoption, the Clark’s have continued to nurture and develop Chriselle’s relationships with her birth mother’s family. Chriselle is continuously involved in the lives of her sister, cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents.

“We always tell Chriselle that she was chosen. We speak openly about how she came into the world and how she ended up in our family. Her biological family calls us their ‘family’ and we’re honored be able to do the same,” Missy added.

“God sets the lonely in families.” - Psalm 68:6