Anna and Nic Hoffmann felt the tug to begin their fostering journey when their close friends fostered and adopted a baby who had been surrendered at the hospital shortly after being born.
The baby’s grandmother lived next to Anna Hoffmann’s brother and sister-in-law, and she asked if the couple could adopt the baby. Anna’s brother and sister-in-law talked and prayed about the opportunity, but ultimately they could not step in because they were not licensed to foster.
Anna and Nic called their friends, the Thompsons, who were licensed to foster, and they were able to get in touch with the social worker at the hospital and bring the baby home.
After that, Anna and Nic both felt like they couldn’t continue on as they had before. Not after being part of this incredible story. They realized the reason the Thompsons were able to say “yes” when this opportunity arose is because they were proactive and already had their foster license before being asked.
Anna and Nic wanted to be able to step in and say “yes” too, if their friends, neighbors, or anyone in their community needed their help in the future. So they began the process of getting licensed to foster.
Because of having a biological child who was 1 year old, the Hoffmann family could only accept younger placements, and only one foster child at a time. They expected to get called with a placement immediately, but months went by before receiving any calls. For the first two years after becoming licensed, they provided only respite care. They received many calls for placements they said yes to, but then the child would end up not coming. Discouragement started to build. Anna felt she couldn’t relate to the ladies in her support group at church because she hadn’t even fostered yet. Anna and Nic began to feel like maybe they weren’t needed, and they wondered, “God, why did you call us to this if You weren’t going to use us?”
In the end, they are so glad they trusted God’s timing in the midst of their questioning and discouragement.
In May 2023, the Hoffmanns got their first long-term placement — two twin 2-year-old boys — when their biological children were 2.5 years and 9 months old. It was a full house with four young boys 2 and under. Anna describes it as a “wild” time. She and Nic fostered the boys for a month, and it was a really sweet experience, and then the boys were able to reunite with their biological family.
Then, in February 2024, they got their second long-term placement, Aly, a 2.5 year-old girl.
At the time, their biological sons were 3 and 1. Aly arrived straight from the hospital having endured severe physical abuse. She could not walk or crawl, was non-verbal, and was completely immobile. She had traveled to the US at age 2 with her biological mother, but was born in Honduras and was not yet a US citizen.
Not long after coming to live with the Hoffmanns, Aly began to heal and thrive. She quickly learned to walk and talk because she had little buddies — Anna and Nic’s biological boys — teaching her how every day. Aly and the boys became fast friends, and she fit right into the Hoffmann family very quickly. Anna and Nic like to joke that their boys were Aly’s unofficial speech and physical therapists.
At the same time, it was really hard. Aly had months of all kinds of therapies, and it was difficult caring for three young children at home while having to balance that with all the therapies they needed to go to every week. In one month, they had 30 appointments to attend. Anna says the Care Community their church built for them was life-changing and relieved so much stress. Having a meal coming every week or gift cards to eat out, knowing the practical details were being taken care of so they could focus on everything else, made such a difference in their lives.
Anna and Nic had a lot of concerns for Aly’s safety, given this was not the first time she had experienced severe physical abuse. They joined forces with an attorney and DSS to ensure Aly’s long-term plan would keep her the safest possible.
In June 2024, the Hoffmanns were notified that Aly’s biological mother was pregnant and due in August.
Anna and Nic advocated for the baby to go into foster care so he wouldn’t have to go through what Aly endured, but he was not placed into foster care. Devastatingly, the baby passed away in October at two months old. Later on, investigations revealed that he was murdered by his biological mother and her boyfriend. Anna says it felt like their worst nightmare come true, and there was so little they could do after they received the news because they were “just” foster parents and not related to the biological family in any way. They held a prayer memorial for the baby to honor his life in the only way they could.
In December 2024, the Hoffmanns went to court for Aly’s case, and while they were there, they found out her biological mother was pregnant again. Anna and Nic knew they had to do whatever they could to get the baby and keep him safe. At the end of the hearing, the court recommended Aly be returned to her biological father in Honduras, as her immigration status severely complicated her situation. The uncertainty continued for several months.
In summer 2025, they returned to court for Aly’s case for the TPR trial. The judge granted TPR and declared Aly would be able to be adopted by the Hoffmanns — a huge victory!
Her baby brother Ben was born in June 2025, and Anna and Nic brought him home from the hospital at 2 days old and adopted him two weeks ago.
They are still in a 120-day waiting period for the consulate of Honduras to approve their adoption of Aly. The waiting period will be finished at the end of July, and the Hoffmanns are hopeful they will be able to adopt her sometime this fall. Aly loves her baby brother so much, and she is SO excited for it to be her turn to be adopted soon.
Anna’s grandfather was in foster care growing up, but was never adopted and experienced homelessness as a young adult after aging out. On baby Ben’s adoption day, her grandfather quietly said, “I never got to experience this.” Being there for his great-grandson’s adoption fulfilled something inside him that he’d been longing for since childhood. Anna and Nic are so thankful they’ve been given the opportunity to change the trajectory of their foster children’s lives so they don’t have to experience what her grandfather did.
When asked what she would tell a family who was considering fostering or adopting, Anna said,
“Every foster parent in the world can confirm that the number one thing we get told is ‘I couldn’t do what you do, I’d get too attached’. But attachment is the point. Children heal by being able to attach to their foster families, even if it comes at our expense.
In March 2024, when we had just been placed with Aly, I was at a kid’s consignment sale with my mom. I was holding up a Christmas dress for Aly, wondering if I should even consider buying it because I had no idea if she would even be with us by Christmas. At that moment, God strongly convicted me. I don’t even have Christmas promised with my bio kids. We are not in control.
Stop being afraid to attach because you are trying to prepare yourself for the future. Your future is in God’s hands, and foster kids need your attachment and love so much.
The Fostering the Family community has been such an encouragement to us in our fostering and adoption journey because, outside of this, you have to really, really search for like-minded friends — no one we know at church or school is fostering. So it is incredible having these connections and this level of support.”
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