An emotional movie has become the catalyst for a family’s life-changing decision to adopt. Nicole Brabson, a Mumford High School teacher, and her husband were inspired by the 2024 film Sound of Hope, which follows the real-life story of 22 families in Texas that adopted all 77 foster children in their neighborhood.
Brabson first saw the movie during a screening organized at her school. However for her, it was more than a film—it was a call to action. The movie influenced her decision to adopt Brittany, a student who had been in foster care.
“There were young people there speaking about their journey and a lot of them had come through Mumford [High School], and I was like, I didn’t know,” Brabson said in an interview with WXYZ.
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Despite having previously attempted to adopt a student who had been in the system for over a decade—an endeavor that eventually “didn’t work out”—Brabson and her husband had not given up hope.
They had completed all of the appropriate lessons and received training to become adoptive parents. All they needed was a suitable opportunity.
That opportunity came through a new local program called the Village at Mumford, launched by foster care advocate Saba Gebrai of the Park West Foundation. The program is designed to support foster children by building a safety net within the school community itself.
“She [Saba Gebrai] said, ‘do you know how many foster kids are at your school?’ I was like, no I only know of one,” Brabson recalled.
The reality, as Gebrai explained, is that many foster children remain invisible in classrooms and hallways.
“If each school and basically the surrounding community, which would involve the church community as well, says, ‘We are going to keep our kids,’ they will graduate from the same schools, they’ll become productive adults,” Gebrai said.
Gebrai invited Brabson and her husband to attend the school’s Sound of Hope screening. After the event, Brabson heard the personal stories of students she’d passed in the halls countless times. It was then that the idea of adoption took on a new urgency.
“It was creating a network of us so that if our kids had to leave, or if our kids had to be placed some place else, that one of us were legally ready to take them in,” Brabson said.
The Village at Mumford helped connect the couple with Brittany, a student who was about to be transferred to a residential placement more than an hour away. Instead, she was adopted by the Brabsons, giving her not only a stable home but also the opportunity to remain in her school and community.
Thanks to this initiative, Brittany will now graduate from Mumford High School, surrounded by familiar faces and a supportive environment.
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When asked what she thinks of her new parents, Brittany described them as “kind, funny, smart, and hard-working.”
For Brabson, becoming a parent has brought a new level of responsibility but also immense joy.
“Busy! We go, but we’re learning so much and I can’t even describe what it feels like to have someone call you Mom,” she said.
Her message to others who might be considering foster care or adoption is simple and heartfelt: “All you need is the heart and the time, and that’s it. A little bit of time to love.”
According to the U.S. Department of Education, across America, about 400,000 kids are currently in the foster care system, with roughly 20,000 aging out of the system each year.
READ ALSO: She was abandoned at 9 months old, now she fosters over 30 children at just 26
