I was born into foster care. Before I had a word for "home," the system was already deciding where I would sleep and whether I would belong anywhere.

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What changed my life wasn't a program or a policy. It was a family. They chose to take me in and gave me siblings, a place at the table, and the stability and belonging I have built my whole life on.

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I know how thin the line is between a child who finds a home and one who never does. Sometimes it comes down to whether one family had the support it needed at the right moment.

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In 2020, Sarah and I became licensed foster parents so we could open our home the way another family once opened theirs. Since then we have welcomed many children and families into our lives. We have watched a child who has been through too much finally feel safe enough to laugh at the dinner table. We have seen birth parents and kinship caregivers show remarkable courage.

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We have also seen the gaps: late-night calls, children arriving with only the clothes they're wearing, and caregivers who love fiercely but are stretched thin because they don't have the resources they need. We aren't looking at this work from the outside. We are living it.

Someone once made room for me. A family decided that a child they didn't have to take in was worth loving, and that choice echoed through every chapter of my life. It led me to Sarah, to our home, to the children who have come through our doors, and now to this Foundation.

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The Carmona Foundation is our way of honoring my family and passing their gift forward. It is how Sarah and I take what began at our kitchen table and share it with families across our community, so more children can stay connected and more families can stay whole.

I know firsthand that the right support at the right time can change everything. I have spent my life grateful that my parents and siblings gave it to me. Now it's our turn.