Foster care can often be reduced to statistics, from the number of children waiting for homes to the number of families licensed to foster and the number of adoptions finalized each year. However, behind every statistic is a child carrying the weight of uncertainty or loneliness, and behind every open door is a family choosing to make room for someone else's story alongside their own.
For Ryan and Andrea McQueen, the choice began quietly but quickly, without hesitation, as they graciously opened their home and hearts to children and families in need.
"It's great being able to grow up with all of them because you know you will be able to have them forever." — Makenna McQueen
The Social Circle couple's journey into fostering and adoption began 10 years ago but certainly did not happen overnight. At first, they volunteered to temporarily care for children who needed short-term placements. Then came adoption. The McQueens adopted three children—Lexi, Madi and Tyler—before officially becoming foster parents. The journey to fostering began in 2016, when Tyler's biological brother, Tate, entered their lives in an unexpected way. Tate's mother had once been the McQueens' neighbor. Andrea was even present for his birth. When Tate entered foster care, he was placed immediately with the McQueens and united with his brother. After learning the mother could no longer care for Tate, they adopted him, as well. Afterward, the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services opened the McQueens' home as a regular foster placement. Since then, they have fostered more than 100 children.
Today, the McQueens have six adopted kids who live at home, along with a 13-month-old foster child. Their household includes two 14-year-olds, a 9-year-old, a 7-year-old, a 5-year-old and a 4-year-old. Their youngest adoption, Kinsley, was finalized in October.
What began as coincidence slowly grew into conviction. Their grace and compassion for children in need blossomed with every child they encountered. The McQueens made every decision intentionally, choosing child after child to create stability for those who lacked it. They acknowledge that their own financial stability made fostering possible, and they encourage those who are able to consider helping in some capacity, whether through fostering, adoption or supporting foster families in their communities.
"We've been super blessed," Ryan said. "I can't complain one bit."
Still, the McQueens emphasize that fostering involves much more than providing food or shelter. According to Ryan, building trust is the key ingredient in helping children. It also means working alongside biological parents rather than against them.
"Stability and structure—those kinds of things are key," Andrea said. "We are what they call partner parents, so we work with these kids' parents to help them get them back. When they get these plans to be able to get their kids back, it's very daunting, it's very overwhelming for them, so you work with them. Once those parents start to trust you, too, that's huge, because I think once you can work with the parent and the kids see you working with the parent, that helps them to relax, as well. Yes, these kids have been through terrible things and seen terrible things, but so have their parents, and they love them no matter what."
The goal of foster care remains reunification whenever possible. Many children enter care because families are struggling with issues like addiction, financial hardship, mental health challenges or unsafe living conditions. The McQueens have helped many children return home safely to their parents. Some of them visit years later with children of their own who affectionately call Ryan and Andrea "Pop-pop" and "Mee-mee." However, the work can be exhausting, emotionally and physically. Andrea admits community support became essential to sustaining their family over the years.
"I think we have such an amazing village," she said. "If we need a break or if we're just feeling overwhelmed, I mean, thank God our grown kids are so amazing. If we need a date night or anything, we lean on each other. Fostering can be overwhelming. Clearly, we've been doing it longer than most people, so we seem to be the ones that everybody calls when they're feeling overwhelmed, but you also connect with other foster parents who are going through the same things that you are."
The McQueens' church community, Grace Monroe, organized care teams that rotated meals weekly, helped provide supplies and offered practical support whenever new children arrived. Andrea described those acts as lifesaving, especially during difficult seasons. The McQueens also encourage foster parents to attend conferences, support groups and trainings for resources and encouragement. They attend two conferences every year with Chosen For Life Ministries and DFACS, which provide them with informative and valuable places to link arms with others in their position. The main challenges the McQueens have faced involve behavior with the children, but a gracious hand and assistance from members of the community made those situations much smoother.
"[Foster parents] need to know [to] stop waiting on your DFACS case worker to get you in with a therapist," Andrea said. "Stop waiting to get doctors' appointments. Nobody tells you, and we had to learn that. I don't have to wait for DFACS to get me a good therapist, because right off the get-go, all of these kids need a good therapist, whether it's play therapy, speech therapy, whatever."
For the McQueens' biological children, fostering changed the shape of their youth. Makenna McQueen, their youngest biological daughter, was around 7 years old when her parents adopted their first child. "It's great being able to grow up with all of them because you know you will be able to have them forever," she said. "People want to say, 'those aren't your siblings, those are half your siblings or they're adopted,' but no, they are all my siblings." Makenna credited her parents for always including the family in conversations surrounding fostering and adoption, making sure everyone understood what was happening when new children entered the home. It made a major impact on their family dynamic. Makenna admitted the experience was difficult to fully understand as a child but revealed that it ultimately reshaped her perspective.
"I wouldn't say, as a 10-year-old, I understood giving up my life to help another kid," she said. "Not saying I did that, but that was how it felt as a 10-year-old, but now I am so grateful for that because that kind of helped me realize not everyone has a wonderful, grand life. It put a lot into perspective and gave me a lot more empathy for everyone."
It has become less about re-homing children for the McQueens and more about offering consistency, grace and love during uncertain or unsafe times.
"Even in the hardest times, there is so much joy," Andrea said. "[The community] sees our family, sees how happy our children are. They see the difference that you can make in the hardest time of a child's life and still bring joy and make a difference in their childhood."
The purpose remains simple, according to Ryan.
"Give [foster children] a chance," he said. "Without people volunteering their time, their love, their home, they don't have a lot of chance, and people can have the opportunity to give them a chance."
