Foster parent assuredly predicted adoption after first meeting with child
It was love at first sight for LaKeisha Brown when she met seven-year-old Khalifa Williams over a year ago. Their meeting happened a few days after Valentine’s Day in 2025, and a mother’s love clasped the Rankin County child.
Seven-year-old Khalifa recently became the official son of a Rankin County, Miss., woman who adopted him after about a year-and-a-half of fostering him through Apelah. The happy child has steadily emerged from his shy shell, she says.
Soon, through Apelah, Brown had secured after a process, a foster care tie with Williams. He was taken underneath her wings. The shy boy is autistic and battles attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Neither conditions gave Brown pause in embracing him.
Last December, Brown formally adopted Kahlifa, and a joy for life has become enhanced for both of them, Brown said.
“I knew right away he was the one I had been dreaming of meeting and adopting one day,” Brown said.
While Khalifa undergoes regular behavioral therapy and is learning conflict resolution through feisty trail and errors with peers at school, Brown is managing his progress.
“He likes to fight other kids, but he’s learning. He is learning to keep his hands to himself,” she said.
Rankin County, Miss., resident LaKeisha Brown recently adopted a seven-year-old boy after being his foster care parent for just over a year.
Her ability to do so comes with experience: she raised another child, now an adult, who battled autism.
“My oldest prepared me,” the former truck driver said.
Kahlifa, just over the past few months, has slowly become to emerge out of his shell, and has become talkative, his new mom assessed. Recently the two traveled to Myrtle, South Carolina, where Kahlifa discovered the beach and the ocean.
“Every since, he keeps talking about playing in the sand,” Brown said with a laugh.
Find you how you can foster a child in need of a caring adult and a better future. Visit https://www.apelah.org/foster-care