A single black woman says she has been trolled for adopting – three white children.
Treka Engleman, a 32-year-old public school teacher from Cincinnati, Ohio, said she knew she always wanted to be a foster mum.
But she wasn’t prepared for the backlash she would face when raising three white kids.
“I’ve had people say I must have self hate and that there are a lot of black kids that need homes so why adopt white kids?” she said.
Adding: “People have said that I am continuing a slave mentality. It upset me at first, but I just want to protect my kids.
“I’ve had people in a store say ‘you must be babysitting,’ and I’m like ‘no these are my kids’ and I just walk away.
“I don’t want people to say those kind of things around them. Unfortunately I knew I would get bad comments, but for me the color of my children doesn’t matter.”
Treka knew from an early age that she was destined to be a foster mother and adopter.
She said: “I grew up in large family with five sisters and five brothers.
”I was the youngest of 11 children, and my mother passed away when I was six-years-old.
“I was brought up in church and there was a family there going into foster care when I was about 14-years-old and it broke my heart that they were getting separated.
“There were five or six siblings and there was not a family that could take all of them in, and from that experience I knew even more than before that I wanted to be a foster mum.”
In 2016 Treka took courses at St. Joseph Orphanage in Cincinnati to get a license to become a foster mom.
After earning her license in August of that year, she fostered her first child Elijah, who was just six-days-old at the time. His biological mother was a drug addict and he was born addicted to drugs.
Treka went on to foster Alexis, 13, in May 2017 and her sister Mercedes, 16, in March 2018. Both sisters had been placed in the foster care system at a young age because their biological mother was unable to care for them adequately.
On November 1, 2019, Treka decided to officially adopt all three children.
“We had a connection already and once they’ve been in your home for so long, they needed me and I needed them. They were a part of the family and I couldn’t split them up,” she said.
Despite the cruel and ignorant comments Treka says she is completely devoted to her children.
“I love my kids very much and I’m extremely grateful to have them in my life,” she said.
Her local community has also been a big help to her, pulling together to give Treka’s three children the best life possible.
“They have set up a GoFundMe, to help with some of our expenses and to help us get a bigger car and house to help our living situation, especially since Mercedes is preparing for college soon,” she said.
Donations can be made at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-engleman-family