6-Year-Old Girl Handed Her Foster Dad An Emotional Note Just A Few Days After She Moved Into His Home
The touching exchange highlights the challenges endured by foster children longing for stability and affection.
Photo: fizkes / Shutterstock A man’s heart shattered when his 6-year-old foster daughter handed him a handwritten note that she composed for him. Her note portrayed her traumatic past before she was placed with the man and his wife, and now he is determined to mend her broken heart.
The little girl’s note asked her foster dad to ‘please love’ her after she was placed in his care.
The South Dakota foster father shared a photo of the note on Reddit, writing “My 6-year-old foster daughter just handed me this note.”
The circular-shaped piece of paper had the words, “Plez luve me” (please love me) scrawled across it.
The man also took to his X account to share the heartbreaking note. "I immediately felt the full spectrum of human emotions from deep sorrow that her life so far has left her desperately wanting to be loved & soaring happiness knowing that of all people she asked us to love her,” he wrote.
The man decided to let the little girl know that he and his wife would forever love her in a handwritten note of their own.
He handed her a similar piece of paper to the original, this one reading, “We Will Always Love You,” replacing the letter o in “love” with a heart.
The man updated his original post, sharing that when his foster daughter received the note, she “smiled and twirled and showed it to her brother and they both did a tackle hug.”
Photo: Reddit
He added that he put the girl’s note in a “memory box” to hold onto forever.
Other Redditors were deeply moved by the little girl and the man’s notes to one another.
“I instantly started to cry when I read her note," one user commented. "I was totally unloved but still with my biological family. The effects of not being loved are still with me, 60 + years later."
“Oh man, as someone who lost their daughter at age 6, that is just the sweetest thing,” another user shared.
“That little girl was made for you,” a third commenter added.
Photo: fizkes / Shutterstock
The man revealed that he and his wife began fostering two years ago. On December 31, 2022, they took in the 6-year-old girl along with her 5-year-old brother in a foster-to-adopt situation.
As of September 2023, the pair were officially adopted.
According to recent federal data, there are currently over 400,000 children in the foster care system.
Eleven percent of these children will spend five or more years in the foster system, and some of them will unfortunately never be adopted.
Foster children often experience multiple placements in different homes, which can lead to feelings of instability and a lack of attachment. Constantly moving from one home to another can make it difficult for them to form trusting relationships and feel secure.
Unfortunately, some foster children may experience negative treatment or neglect in foster care placements, further reinforcing feelings of being unloved or unwanted.
The little girl’s plea for love demonstrates the gut-wrenching reality of many foster children who fear that they will never have a permanent home.
Foster children need to receive support, stability, and unconditional love from their caregivers and support systems. If you are interested in fostering, research your state’s eligibility requirements, and complete applications and background checks. You may just find a love you never thought you needed to give.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.