New-Yorker native and single dad Lamont Thomas tried his best to hide the tears as he adopted five siblings of ages 5 to 1.
Thomas has been adopting foster kids since 2000, and he has raised more than 30 youngsters since then. After a long process, the Thomas household has gotten bigger with the five new addition to the family.
“I was fighting to keep back the tears,” Thomas said. “Every day I think about it, my eyes swell up. All that we endured to make this happen, it was something.” The single father currently has 12 adopted children in his home, ten were adopted, and two were his own.
“Lamont never turned [a child] away,” said Michael, the first child Lamont ever fostered. “They either aged out or went back home to their own families. The lovable single father never failed to shower his foster children with love.
Thomas had to act when he heard about the siblings’ story. Before the single father adopted Zendaya, 5, Jamel, 4, Nakia 3, Major, 2, and Michaela, 1, they were separated and had to live in four different foster homes separately. The kids had to live away from each other in four different cities.
It seemed like it was not that long ago when Lamont started helping a few of his friends who lost their child to the system. When the single father finally got his license, he became a foster parent immediately, and nothing has stopped him ever since.
In 2007, he adopted the twins Germayne and Tremayne, along with two other children named Jamie and German. Not long after his first four kids, he adopted the first child he fostered—Michael.
“I wanted to be the difference, I wanted to make a difference by being a difference for these youth.” Thomas had stopped adopting kids, but with the handful of energy he’s got at home, it will be like coming out of his retirement.
“It’s amazing he’s taking on all of them,” said LaMonica, 27, Lamont’s biological daughter. “He does anything for everybody. He’s a really great man,” she added. Michael also commented how taking care of children is really his father’s ‘God-given calling.’
Both of Lamont’s biological children almost can’t fathom that their father is willing to start all over again—with toddlers under 5, nonetheless.
The single father once fostered the father of the five siblings. The kids ended up being taken into care, where they all got separated. Thomas took care of the brothers and sisters before finally adopting them all together.
If it weren’t for Lamont, the five siblings would be living for another day separated. The official proceedings took place inside Judge Lisa Rodwin’s courtroom in Erie County, New York.
Watch the video below and witness how the five siblings ended up in Lamont’s care: