In 2019, 31-year-old Terrance Jordan received some news that would change his life: he had one-year-old twin sisters in Georgia’s foster care system. Terrance was raised by his mother and step-father, and seldom had contact with his biological father growing up. He had no idea that he had these two sisters until his father reached out to ask for help.
My first thought was: I’m going to do all that I can for them."
Unfortunately, obtaining guardianship was not an easy process across state lines and Terrance knew he could not navigate this legal process alone. Terrance did his research and called Bay Area Legal Services, where attorney Laura Ankenbruck took his case.
According to the Department of Health and Human Resources, there are about 430,000 children in the US Child Welfare System, and an overrepresented 23% of those children are Black. Terrance did not want his sisters to be a part of those statistics.
Laura began working diligently on the case while Terrance tracked down his biological father and the twins’ mother for consent to take the girls in. Then, on August 20th, and just in time for the twins’ second birthday, Terrance obtained custody and welcomed them into his family.
Laura went above and beyond, I don’t know what would have happened without this help, but now [the girls] are happy and healthy and loving life.”