When Baylee Laine faced the choice of leaving her turbulent upbringing behind or staying for the sake of her younger siblings, she chose the latter.
At just 18 years old, she decided to take responsibility for the four children – and two years later, she had adopted them.
Today, Baylee, 28, shares the long struggle to gain custody of her siblings.
Baylee Laine was still a teenager when her family situation became increasingly complicated. Her parents divorced when she was young, and when she was eight years old, child protective services, CPS, became involved.
Her father later took care of Baylee and her brother. Meanwhile, her mother had four more children with two other men. Baylee spent a lot of time at her mother’s home helping with the younger siblings. When her mother later had twins, the situation became too much.
I was like, ‘I can’t keep spending my summers taking care of your kids. I can’t keep doing this.’ I was a softball player and had a full ride to play softball,” she told People. “Then I started panicking. ‘What am I going to do with my life if my life basically revolves around helping my mom?’ She had twins, and then I took a step back.”
Baylee had other plans for her life. She was a successful softball player and had received a scholarship to play in college. During her senior year of high school, she planned to move out of state and start fresh.
But the thought of her younger siblings gnawed at her.
“These kids are going to be completely alone,” she recalls thinking.
In the end, she made the decision of her life.
“Then, I decided I’m going to stay, and if I stay, I’m taking them,” says Baylee.
Fought for two years for her siblings
Baylee enrolled at a community college and worked at the same time to be able to care for the children. She also received help from friends and family, who among other things raised money through a GoFundMe campaign.
With the help of a legal advisor, she fought for two years to be approved as a foster parent.
When Baylee was 19, her siblings were placed with her through the foster care system. On October 25, 2017, the children arrived at her door.
But the struggle was far from over. Baylee also had to fight to have the biological parents’ rights terminated before she could adopt her siblings. In the end, she succeeded.
Two years after her siblings were placed with her, the adoption became official. Baylee was 21 years old and had become the adoptive mother of her little brother and three younger sisters.
“I became robotic”
Suddenly caring for four children was, of course, an enormous adjustment. Baylee paused her studies and stopped working for a period in order to care for her siblings full time.
The children also carried difficult experiences from their earlier upbringing. Baylee describes how, during the first period, they struggled to feel safe and were constantly afraid that someone would come and take them away.
“There were no emotions, no feelings. I became robotic. I had a job to do,” she says.
It took time before the family could settle into their new life. According to Baylee, it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic, when the family spent a lot of time together at home, that they truly began to feel safe.
Today, life looks completely different. Baylee has a daughter of her own, who is three years old, and her four adopted siblings are now between 12 and 17 years old. She says the children are today “100 percent past all of that.”
The story went viral
Recently, Baylee chose to share the family’s story on TikTok. A video clip with photos from the children’s upbringing to the present day quickly spread widely and has been viewed around six million times.
Many viewers shared that they had similar experiences themselves, something that made a strong impression on Baylee.
“I want our life to be normal. So seeing and hearing from other people that this is their normal… it validates that I don’t need to go find normalcy. We’re normal because there are so many other people who get to live life how we live,” she says.
Following the viral video, several people have reached out to Baylee to ask for advice on caring for their own siblings.
She emphasizes that every situation is unique, but also wants to encourage anyone who finds themselves in a similar situation.
“If I can do it, anybody can do it. But it’s a lot.” says Baylee.