As a Kentucky teacher counts the new students who will enter his classroom this fall, he also counts his blessings, which include a thriving family of six who became his when he adopted a student and his siblings.
“Our lives are full,” Justin Padgett of Danville, Kentucky, told Fox News Digital.
“We've given God the opportunity to get us where we need to be at the right time. I feel satisfied.”
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The journey began during COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2021.
Padgett, who taught fifth grade at Highland Elementary School in Lincoln County, Kentucky, was finally able to teach your students in person during the last nine weeks of school.
A judge has made it official: Casey Padgett (second from left) and Justin Padgett (far right) have officially adopted their children Jaden, Hailey, Alexis and Jace in March 2022. (Casey Padgett)
One of his students, Jaden, fell behind on some schoolwork—as many kids have during COVID.
“I helped him with one-on-one reading and social studies,” Padgett said.
“We were just trying to help him with his schoolwork. And then one day he called me to his computer and just said, 'I need to be adopted.'
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The boy typed the same words into his computer, so Padgett pulled him out into the hallway to talk.
The fifth-grader claimed his current foster parents cannot adopt him and his three siblings and that his birth family has lost their rights.
The Padgett family dresses up for Halloween in Waynesburg, Kentucky. (Casey Padgett)
So he and his siblings had to be adopted, he said, and he hoped his teacher could do it.
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“He was kind to me and always helped me,” Jaden told Fox News Digital.
“He was a very loving person, so I just wanted him to love “Me and my family.”
Padgett called Kaiden's adoptive mother and then drove home to talk to his wife, Casey.
“We love telling our story. It's a blessing to be able to share it and see how people respond to us.”
“I said, 'Hey, I have a kid in my class who needs to be adopted and he has three siblings,'” Padgett said.
“I asked her, 'What do you think about this? How would you feel about this?'
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The couple, who married in 2018, were hoping to have a child of their own.
But “it just wasn't in our plans,” Casey Padgett said.
She desperately wanted to become a mother, but doctors advised her to wait.
The Padgett family pictured during a trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee. (Casey Padgett)
“I really started praying about it,” Casey Padgett said.
“I thought, 'There's got to be a way,'” she added. “I have a couple of friends and family members who are adoptive parents, and they kept encouraging us and telling us that we would be great adoptive parents.”
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The couple began attending classes to prepare for raising a child.
They were close to completing their training and were looking forward to homeschooling when Jaden made the request.
“I actually started praying about it.”
“It really sped up [things]”,” Justin Padgett said.
They started this process in April 2021.
Keeping 4 siblings together
“These kids were part of a program called Wendy's Wonderful Kids,” Justin Padgett said of the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a national nonprofit that finds families for more than 140,000 children waiting to be adopted from foster care in the United States.
The foundation played a major role in keeping the family of four siblings together.
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“We started making connections with their social worker, and she kind of checked us out to make sure we knew what we were signing up for. And then we started [the] visits.”
The Padgetts started by taking the kids—Jaden, Haley, Alexis and Jace—to church, where they served as youth leaders.
“We started picking them up in the church van,” Justin Padgett said, “and they started going to church with us.”
The Padgett family has many first trips they hope to cross off their bucket list. They recently visited Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. (Casey Padgett)
The Padgetts did not tell the children that they were available for adoption.
“Anything can happen in life, and, you know, we could have backed out or something could have changed in the court system,” Justin Padgett said. “They eventually found out, but at that point, we were already visiting them on the weekends and getting their rooms ready.”
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At the end of July 2021, the children moved to a new foster family.
“I really liked it because we didn't have to break up and date someone else,” Alexis, 12, told Fox News Digital.
The Padgetts lived in a small farmhouse when there were just the two of them. So they moved to three bedroom house — which they quickly outgrew.
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The family has since moved to Danville, where Justin Padgett now works at the Kentucky School for the Deaf.
A family of six stopped at Gettysburg National Military Park while visiting Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. (Casey Padgett)
The adoption became official on March 3, 2022.
“We are very religious, so we saw their spiritual growth, “Which was amazing to us. They've grown so much,” Justin Padgett said.
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The parents said they hoped that when considering adoption, people would think about teenage children, not just young children.
“At that age, they've been through so much trauma — being separated from home, being in foster care — that they really need special love and attention,” Casey Padgett said.
“Not everything is rosy and cloudless, but we are steadfastly enduring difficult times and working together.”
“And they're going to need resources to support their mental health, as well as guidance and help as they navigate college, vocational school, or wherever they go in life,” she added.
Casey Padgett said she and her husband are considering having a baby naturally or adopting another child.
“The doors are open to everything God has in store for us,” she said.
Justin Padgett and his wife quickly became a family of six. They said they hope their story will inspire others to consider adoption. (Casey Padgett)
The Padgetts said they hope their story will inspire someone else to consider adopting a child — even a teacher.
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“It's a calling. You're in the right place parent When [the kids are] at school. You're responsible for their safety, and those are the connections and bonds that are formed,” Justin Padgett said.
“It's very easy for a teacher to go from managing a child in school to being responsible for foster care or adoption.”