How One Couple’s “Maybe Someday” Turned Into a Forever Home for Three Sisters
When you walk into the front door of Troy and Christine Carpenter’s home, you can’t miss the colorful wall that lines the staircase in front of you.
Over a dozen picture collages of their adventures over the years cascade their way from the first floor to the second creating one piece of walk-down-memory-lane art.
“These are from when it was just Troy and I,” Christine explained as she pointed to a portion of the wall, “and here’s when the girls joined us.”
As she finished her sentence, one of those girls came bounding into the hallway to introduce herself while proudly presenting her own piece of art.
Skyler, the youngest of the Carpenter crew at age 5, proudly held up a picture of several people drawn in crayon on a page with hearts around it. When someone asked what the picture was of… she simply said:
“My family.”
HER family.
A forever family that she and her big sisters Serenity and Shyann hoped they would find, but one that Christine and Troy always knew was meant to be.
“MAYBE SOMEDAY.”
When Christine and Troy Carpenter got married, they knew they weren’t ready for kids.
“Maybe someday” is how Christine described them talking about the possibility of starting a family, but they knew at the time they weren’t quite ready and wanted to have a focus on career.
But when Christine entered her 30s, they started talking more about it, yet both acknowledged a feeling of not being ready for a commitment of having a baby or navigating the balance of childcare and career.
“If we don’t end up having kids of our own,” Christine recalls discussing with Troy, “there’s always adoption.”
A few years after that, Christine experienced a medical condition that required her to have her ovaries removed — which took the option of having children of their own off the table.
“It was a blessing that we already had that conversation and realized that adoption would be great,” she explained. “That’s just the universe’s sign, that’s the path our lives are going to take if we do have children in our lives.”
At the time they lived in Florida — but they knew they wanted to move somewhere they saw themselves with a family. In frequent visits to Pittsburgh for work, they started to feel a connection.
“We fell in love with the sense of community that Pittsburgh has and the arts and the culture and the sports… and we could just see ourselves raising a family here,” Christine shared.
They made the move to Pennsylvania in 2019, but when the world shut down in 2020, they decided that pursuing fostering and adopting was too much to handle at the time.
But when Christmas 2022 came around, they both sensed something was missing.
Not only did their house have room for more, their hearts did, too.
They knew their “Maybe Someday” was here.
And that’s when they turned to Pressley Ridge.
EXPANDING THEIR HEARTS.
After researching several foster care agencies and not feeling a connection, Troy and Christine felt Pressley Ridge was the best one to help them take such an important next step for their family.
“They had a very welcoming presence online,” Christine said. “And I liked that it wasn’t just focused on fostering and adoption, that they do so much for the community and so much for kids in need.”
When they reached out to Pressley Ridge in early 2023, they were connected to Natasha Seasoltz and Helene Welling — whom Troy commended for the time and energy they took to get to know them and the “why” behind their desire to expand their family with a child between the ages of 5 and 13.
At the end of the specialized training that was required to become a certified treatment foster parent with Pressley Ridge, they got a phone call.
Not just about one child, but three of them.
Sisters.
Skyler who was 3.5 at the time.
Serenity who had just turned 9.
Shyann who was 12.
They knew from their research that sibling groups — as well as older children — tend to be harder to place as not everyone has room for multiple children — or many are looking to welcome younger children.
“It was very scary,” Christine recalled. “But something just felt right.”
At the first meet and greet, the Carpenters took the girls bowling, and acknowledged that everyone felt a little nervous — the couple wanted to make a good impression and the girls, who were in their second foster home of the year, had already “been through so much” as Christine described.
Christine immediately knew that these were her children, but Troy was a little more guarded. It was important to him that they got to know each other not just in “fun” settings like bowling or zoo trips, but that they spent time doing day-to-day things to get an idea of what real, everyday life would look like as a family with routines, family dinners and more.
“I thought it was really good that we had them to the house and did some of that ‘normal’ stuff,” Troy said. “We didn’t want to buy their affection.”
After several shorter visits to the Carpenter home, the girls did a longer, several-week, in-home stay with Christine and Troy, and it became clear that the connection was a fit for all of them.
And at the end of July, The Carpenters officially became the girls’ foster family – and that’s when Christine said Pressley Ridge’s support became even more valuable.
Joe Hollinger — their Pressley Ridge treatment coordinator at the time — did bi-monthly in-person visits, as well as two-times-a-month virtual visits to be sure each of the girls’ needs were met and to help the Carpenters with any resources and support they needed. That included therapy services through Pressley Ridge, but also things like helping the girls get ready for school, which started just two and a half weeks after they arrived.
“Thank goodness for Pressley Ridge and their legal advocate and their educational advocate helping us get them registered (in their school district),” Troy said. “We didn’t have kids, so I wouldn’t have even known who to call to get them registered.”
While this step to becoming a foster family was a big one, it wasn’t the last one.
The Carpenters knew in their hearts they wanted to adopt Sky, Ren and Shyann.
But first, they wanted to make sure the girls wanted that, too.
TWO BECOMES FIVE.
In a world where so many things were out of their control, the Carpenters wanted to make sure the girls knew this was a place that they DID have say.
“‘You do get a choice if you want to stay here forever,’” Troy remembered saying to the girls. “‘If you don’t want to stay with us, you can tell us or you can tell Joe from Pressley Ridge.”
But the girls knew they had found their home…
… and they chose to stay.
Another thing they chose?
To take Troy and Christine’s last name.
“We turned it into an all-day celebration,” Christine said of the day they adopted the girls. “And more than just the day itself – since then – everyone has felt more settled. The names are changed. They are legally our daughters. It feels like the whole household can take a deep breath.”
A WHOLE HOUSEHOLD, AND A HOLE FILLED.
And all you have to do is spend an hour within the Carpenter home and see how freely and happily the girls interact within it to know that they feel whole, too.
When asked what it was they loved most about living there, Skyler and Serenity both pointed to Christine and Troy — with Sky sharing her extra joy about all the toys and games she plays with them, and Serenity admitting she really loves the variety of snacks in the pantry.
And when it was Shyann’s turn to answer, the teenager took it a step further — and gave everyone a direct look into the impact Christine and Troy’s decision to adopt them made on her.
She acknowledged the togetherness and the sense of family, and how grateful she is that she and her sisters get to be together.
She highlighted the physical safety she feels in the way her neighborhood is laid out but also acknowledged the way Troy and Christine make her feel safe to make mistakes.
“They don’t yell at me,” she said — and expressed her gratitude that they instead are patient, try to help her understand why something is wrong and then work with her to determine a better alternative.
“That really helps me,” she said.
And while it’s clear the Carpenters have added so much to the girls’ life, the girls have also added to theirs.
“I feel like I’m a more whole person,” Christine said through tears. “I feel like there was something that was missing in my life that is there now.”
Something else that’s whole?
That little heart-covered drawing of Sky’s family.
No longer missing pieces.
It’s complete.
Troy and Christine’s “Maybe Someday” is no longer a dream. Thanks to their open hearts and the support of Pressley Ridge, everything they (and the girls) had hoped for…
… is right here today.