A New York family is celebrating after they officially adopted a 5-year-old girl who was placed with them through the foster care system years earlier.
After five years -- 1,954 days -- Cece was adopted by Cindy and Jeffrey Moore on May 11.
"We were just supposed to be an overnight stay until they found [a long-term] place," Cindy Moore told "Good Morning America."
Cece first arrived at the Moores' home in Depew, a village east of Buffalo, when she was just 2 months old.
"Once we saw her cute little face, we jokingly told them, 'If you need a place long term, let us know,'" Cindy Moore recalled. "The next day, they said, 'You know, if you're serious about it, we could really use a long-term placement for her.' And yeah, here we are over five years later, and that long-term placement has now become a forever home for her."
The Moores have been certified foster parents since 2015 and said they started looking into the process after experiencing infertility.
"Friends of ours had some children that they had fostered and then they were in the process of adopting some of them. So, we picked their brain a little bit, got a little bit of information about how the foster system worked and what their experiences were, and then they sent us information to the agency that we work through -- Child and Family Services," Cindy Moore explained. "That's how we ended up getting certified through them."
The couple estimate they've welcomed over 30 kids into their home in the last eight years, but being able to adopt is extra special.
"It's really, really gratifying for us. We're very excited about it. Every time we take a child in our house, you never really know how it's going to pan out long term by the time you start," Jeffrey Moore said. "We had very high hopes in the beginning that we would get to keep Cece long term and be able to adopt her into our family, and we're ecstatic that it finally, finally got to that point."
In addition to Cece, Cindy and Jeffrey Moore have also adopted two other children through foster care and are in the process of adopting at least one more child.
"The same day that Cece was actually adopted, we found out that her half brother that we've been fostering has been freed for adoption. So we'll be starting the adoption process with him as well," Cindy Moore said.
The couple say they encourage others to consider becoming foster parents too and understand how the process works.
"People's first response [is] always, 'I could never give them back.' And my response to them is always, 'Well, they're not yours. You're assisting and you're just helping take care of them while they're in a time of need,'" Cindy Moore said. "Something that I think that people need to go into foster care knowing is that the primary goal is always reunification with the family. And if that doesn't happen, then you can go down the adoption route."
"For us, we're very blessed and we're very happy that for us, it ended that way. But we have had children that have gone back home and we feel very good about that as well because we have seen the growth in their family and we have seen that they're going to a nice, safe, good place," she added.
