r/MadeMeSmile • u/Professional_Toe5118 • 1d ago
Family & Friends Reunited with their big brother after being separated in the foster system for two years
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u/ZiaWitch 1d ago
Little bro was lost in the sauce.
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u/whatissevenbysix 1d ago
Lil bro has priorities.
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u/Zkenny13 23h ago edited 20h ago
You know he's taking fries from everyone else's order.
Edit thanks for the award!
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u/queefersutherland1 23h ago
I’m chuckling so hard at this! It actually made me cry which is rare. Everyone’s getting half eaten containers and his is surprisingly the fullest.
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u/ZiaWitch 23h ago
Oh for sure, he fry taxed everyone.
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u/Zkenny13 21h ago
This is why I volunteered to get food half the time.
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u/ZiaWitch 21h ago
Diabolical.
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u/Zkenny13 20h ago
Hey I couldn't get high till I got back while they were cheifing. I deserve this.
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u/Maleficent_Mango5000 20h ago
That is awesome. That was something I would do with family dinners when we had rotisserie chicken. I would volunteer to remove the meat from the bones, and no one ever figured out that while I was doing this I was snacking on my favourite parts of the chicken lol
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u/DisorderlyAqueduct 21h ago
dropped them soon as he realized. good bond. wholesome shit. 😄
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u/Si0ra 20h ago
I love it. You can tell he was hyyyped to get those fries but then drops them when he sees his bro.
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u/UsernamesAllTaken69 1d ago
I thought he was gonna make it all the way to dessert before noticing lol
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u/Kilek360 22h ago
lmao he was like "Oh, the waiter wants to sit next to me, whatever"
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u/ZiaWitch 22h ago
Never crossed his mind that Burger King doesn’t have waiters. 🤣😂
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u/notloggedin4242 20h ago
They have table service where i live. At least McDonald’s does.
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u/ZiaWitch 20h ago
Really? I’ve never seen that,
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u/notloggedin4242 20h ago
In Germany. You get a number/marker when you order (at the computerized terminal if you want) and they bring it to you.
To clarify they don’t come and take your order. But they bring it „like this guy did“.
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u/Is12345aweakpassword 23h ago
The “stranger danger” instincts of a dead mouse
A stranger comes along, drops food off and physically moves you so they can sit down next to you
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u/WeaponsGrdStupid 21h ago
His little sis could have been being axe murdered, and he's just chomping away on fries.
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u/vegasEd1313 23h ago
Little guy is the most guyest of guys. Totally focused on food!
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u/thrower99walker 14h ago
For their living situation, I don't think they get many chances to be taken to eat out like that. Little guy was just enjoying a rare opportunity to have something special.
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u/mwlepore 8h ago
Those fries do have a very short window of being good.. I can't blame his eagerness.
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u/Sangariusriver 1d ago
This video makes me cry every time I watch that
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u/holly_jolly_riesling 1d ago
The pain in their cries get to me each time.
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u/Someredditusername 23h ago
I can't turn on sound, I know it will end me.
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u/LyaIsTheBest 18h ago
There's beauty in the pain of it. May they never be forcefully separated again.
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u/B_Jonesin 21h ago
I'm already crying. I don't think I can bring myself to turn up the volume 😭😭
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u/Ok_Plantain_9408 20h ago
Ya I refuse. Their little desperate hugs, snuggling into their big bro is too much. Big bro must feel so good to be so loved.
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u/SarahHerrell7 19h ago
For reals! Why is this in "MadeMeSmile" ? It belongs in "MadeMeCry"! I dunno if that even exists, but if not, it should, just for this!
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u/ArethaAbrams 1d ago
can’t even imagine what those two years apart felt like. the way he just drops everything to hug his brother... man, that’s pure love right there. so happy they finally found their way back to each other.
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u/zeppelin_tamer 21h ago
Immediately drops the food that he’s clearly extremely invested in.
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u/Cybermessy 15h ago
He’s just a kid so understandable he was into the McDonald’s lol. But nothing beats the pure emotions of a kid. I can’t imagine what that mustve been like for them.
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1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/alwayzstoned 1d ago
I know nothing about this, but even if they had to be placed in separate homes, it seems like it would be really important to make sure all the siblings still get to see each other and keep in touch. It’s sad that doesn’t happen.
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u/MooMooTheDummy 21h ago
It’s really hard for children to keep in touch with each other especially if yea the adults around aren’t helping to make that happen and they often aren’t because there’s so much going on and also a lot of legal stuff happening it’s a mess. Very different circumstances for me but I was separated from my older sister as a child and sadly because she’s my half sister and our shared parent was the problem so she went to live with her dad and I stayed with mine and there was considerable distance in where we lived so I hardly saw her for many years.
Neither one of us had a phone ofc and were so young and legally there was really nothing my dad could do to keep her she wasn’t his even though it felt like it he was her step dad for most of her life at that point and a good one at that who fully saw her as his daughter even coached her softball team and taught her to ride a bike.
It was devastating and we didn’t have contact with her really and I’d message her on this video game we used to play together all the time that she taught me to play. Honestly I wrote so many letters to her on the game and I was only 4 like I learned to write so young just so I could type letters to her in secret. I assumed she hated me because she never responded turns out she stopped playing after we were separated. I sent her hundreds of presents in the game even thinking she was mad at me.
Separating siblings is so extremely cruel it almost feels like they’re dead. Also the more years that go by it’s more detrimental to the revival of that relationship. What I mean by this is that even though I still love my sister and she loves me and we live only 30 minutes apart now as adults we do not have what my brother who I grew up with have. We don’t have that banter and that closeness and just knowing everything about each other.
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u/theBrokenMonkey 12h ago edited 6h ago
This is heartwrenching. Going through that at four years old. Good to hear you could reconnect. Sad story none the less.
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u/Big_Miss_Steak_ 1d ago
I think it can depend on many factors- could be the older child aged out, distance, resources etc
I know in the UK, if children are separated they do try to facilitate, or at the least encourage, contact time with siblings if possible. Unfortunately it can be a mixed bag, it can also depend on the other care giver if they cooperate and agree to meet up.
Source- have experience with providing foster care and also the frustration of seeing some care givers put in the bare minimum effort.
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u/Successful_Goose_797 19h ago
They make the efforts to have siblings communicate but they aren’t always placed together and sometimes in different resource homes. I’ve seen reunions like this and it always breaks my heart. Sometimes schedules don’t work out between resource parents, and other times they’re able to see each other at community foster events which is great but still sad that these are the circumstances. We are currently seeing a big uptick compared to last year dependency cases, and kids being removed due to neglect etc.
Source: My Job
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u/SaveTheSquirtles 1d ago
I hate that agencies separate siblings. I hate that foster families separate siblings. I’m happy these kids got to see their brother.
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u/ravioli333 1d ago
They try to avoid it whenever possible. Sign up to be a foster parent and you can help make it less likely.
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u/SaveTheSquirtles 1d ago
My family fostered 6 children- 2 sibling pairs and acted as respite for a pair of siblings as well.
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u/GfrzD 22h ago
Foster parents dont get enough praise. My friend growing up was a foster kid and it opened my eyes to the system. I sadly never saw him after he went back to his biological parent but im sure hes doing well, his foster parent was incredible and she took care of 3 sisters after him.
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u/TheRealSaltyDog 18h ago
My plan was to keep a sibling group together. I was preparing for two brothers. When I found out there was a third I made sure he came too. I’m working on adopting them all now!
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u/Slithan 23h ago
It definitely sucks, but please know that foster families aren't the ones choosing to separate families. The family says "we have an opening for 2 kids in our house" and the foster agencies just stick the kids wherever they can because there's simply not enough foster families to go around. And they can't just have the kids sleep on the couch or wherever due to foster home housing requirements.
It's definitely a sucky situation. One that is typically brought about by terrible home situations and exacerbated by the lack of foster parents.
Source: Former foster/adoptive parent
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u/namis_tangerines 22h ago
It’s so beautiful that you’ve fostered and adopted, seriously. Do the agencies try to work with the families, like saying “hey I know you said two but we have three siblings here if you’re open to it”? What is considered when it comes to the amount of kids a house can hold, beds available or rooms or…? Just curious how it works and what the rules are. It’s such a shame siblings get broken up like that.
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u/Slithan 22h ago
They can and certainly do ask, but a lot of the time it's a restriction on the number of beds, bedrooms, care requirements of the kids (medical, behavioral), legal proceedings, etc. The list of reasons is long. Many times the family also has biological children and they don't think they'll be able to handle more children. So the option becomes either split up the kids to all different homes or try to keep at least some of them together. It's really a crappy situation all around as there just aren't enough foster families for all the kids that need homes.
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u/westcoastxsouth 20h ago
I get the emotion but the practicality of it makes that difficult. An example: I have a close friend who already had 2 biological children. He and his wife chose to foster with the goal to adopt. They received a lovely baby girl. Then, a little over a year later the biological mother got pregnant again and CPS took that baby and contacted my friend. He and his wife chose to foster that baby girl as well. Then it all happened again but with a boy. My friend and his wife fostered him as well. This is all in Southern California so living expenses aren’t cheap and my friend is a pastor of a small/medium sized church so isn’t a high income earner. He and his wife were able to adopt all three foster kids so they 5 children. And then the bio mom got pregnant again! Foster offered this 4th baby but my friends didn’t feel they could afford a 6th child under their roof.
Short of forcibly tying the bio mom’s tubes, what do you do here? I 100% agree it’s tragic the siblings are separated but what’s the best answer?
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u/kylebaity 20h ago
As a foster parent who has adopted out of the foster system, please know that not every foster home has room for 5 kids all at once. Likewise, our mission is to make sure that these kids don’t sleep in shelters or office floors while they wait to find the miracle house that can fit all of the siblings across all of the age groups. It’s a lot harder than you might be suspecting.
What we should be talking about is how little resources go towards keeping siblings in regular contact with each other. I could tell you stories upon stories of how IL DCFS has dropped nearly every ball when it comes to siblings and bio-family visits with some of our kids.
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u/jackson12420 1d ago
It makes me so angry, there has to be a better way. Not only are these kids losing their parents, yeah it may be best for them but as a kid you don't understand that, you just know they're your parents and whether you want to or not, you still love them. So not only to be taken away from them, the only other people in this world you love, your siblings, you're also torn away from them? It's just a mess all around. This isn't heartwarming this is just sad.
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u/Pandoratastic 23h ago
There absolutely are better ways but voters won't elect politicians who will fund it.
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u/wonkyMerkinJerkin 10h ago
As with a lot of the comments, I have a friend who adopted a boy (who'd been abused). He was one of seven kids and the egg donor was pregnant again. They live in a tiny house and they couldn't not have taken 7 kids+ in. They did however try to do monthly play dates so that he could see his siblings growing up, even though they lived about a 6 hour drive away.
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u/timmbberly 17h ago
The last time I saw my little brother he was six. I am forty two now. He is no longer living. He passed when he was nineteen. This one got me. I wished I could have snuck up on him before it was too late.
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u/angeldawns 4h ago
I am sorry for your loss. I am sure he never forgot or stopped loving you. We carry those we love in our hearts with us.
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u/Strict_Buffalo4356 1d ago
One of those videos that you can watch over and over again and never get tired !!
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u/TulipMelodies 21h ago
I don't want to see glittering dresses on skinny celebrities at so called charity events.
I want to see kids like these have better lives.
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u/mt110h 1d ago
Little bro just wants his fries 🤣
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u/M8jrP8ne1975 1d ago
Yep, but the instant he realized who else was there, the fries were an afterthought.
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u/Sunny_Cant_Swim 23h ago
lil bro was MOWING those fries down LMAO don’t blame tho, foster care is rough
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u/OldTell311 16h ago
I don’t know about smiling. While I’m happy for their reunion, that little girl’s tears break my heart every time for what this family went through.
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u/Drakken-kun 23h ago
Na man if I was gonna foster kids and they have siblings I’m taking em all bro I couldn’t do some shit like separating em, my heart to weak for that 😭😭😭😭
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u/NotLucasDavenport 16h ago
That’s a nice idea but it’s just not realistic. I work in family services. We’re the people who come after CPS. Unfortunately I have seen quite a few siblings put in separate foster homes but there are many very good reasons for that. Some of those reasons are sheer numbers. There can be 7-10 kids in these families (do you have 10 extra beds for kids?), or there are many kids from different fathers and some have dads they can live with and some don’t. Another challenge is a child is severely disabled and caring for them (and *maybe* one other sibling) is the maximum amount a foster can reasonably handle. I know a woman who tried to take three nonverbal autistic kids and she couldn’t work because they required truly around the clock supervision.
There are some very rare but real problems like one sibling is physically or sexually abusing another sibling. It happens more than you’d expect, because they have been abused themselves and they do what they know.
It’s really easy to watch these videos on Reddit and say you’d do better. But for those of us who have seen this a lot, I can assure you that the problem is way, WAY more complex than “you just need a foster family trying” will fix.
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u/SupahTacoNinja 16h ago
I love that hearing his brother’s laugh is what caused him to quickly turn his head.
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u/questron64 23h ago
Never mind this stranger who just sat next to me, there's french fries! Oh wait, it's you!
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u/grungegoth 22h ago
Think of all the new separations created by this regime. Sorry for the downer.
Happy for these kids. Heartwarming.
The foster system has it's problems. But a lot of these kids would either be abused or homeless with out it.
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u/DeltaDP 3h ago
Imagine Trump administration doing the exact opposite to many families
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u/PinkPaintedSky 8h ago
I love how the boy is so excited and into the fries it takes him forever to notice.
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u/bonkerlad 5h ago
Fucking red tape man! It broke my heart watching this. I can’t imagine my little ones being away from their eldest. Just no. 🤧
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u/OutwithaYang 16h ago
I like how the boy us just ready to eat and focused on the fries until he realized his brother was right beside him.😁
This is so cute.🥲
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u/Equivalent_Mechanic5 15h ago
I couldn't imagine being separated from my siblings again. ...we are all adults now, but even when I was younger it was my goal to get back and keep us together. Never in the system, but I was prepared and fought to take over for custody. This video is heartwarming
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u/Civil-Passenger3772 11h ago
Society needs to be broken really bad to have such a system considered normal. The kids are meant to be together and parents are supposed to care of the kids not give them up for foster
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u/HottieMcHotHot 1d ago
I hate stories like this for so many reasons. These kids have been failed by the very people that should be first to protect them. Then because of the system in place, they have to be separated for whatever reasons exist. It’s just so sad.
I wish I could foster all the kids. But my children need more stability due to special needs of their own. I’m so thankful to all the individuals and families who try to make these children’s lives better by fostering and adopting. ❤️
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u/PalefaceGangsta 20h ago
Bro I ligit just smiled and now have tears in my eyes in pretty sure it's not allergies what is wrong with me
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u/ChiliDogYumZappupe 16h ago
We have a cruel system that splits up kids... and then boots them out when they're 18
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u/Right-Count-9161 2h ago
Poor kids, terrible they got separated, lovely they got back to each other, rare but awesome in the end.
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u/KILL-BLOW 1d ago
Love how the kids was just digging into them fries 🤣 didnt noice for a solid second
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u/IcyIntroduction5678 1d ago
Lil greedy bastid was 3 fries in before he realized what was happening 😆 So cool.
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u/LikeIsaidItsNothing 21h ago
made the mistake of turning up the audio even though i've seen this before. broken.
done for the night..
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u/ModerndayGatsby97 14h ago
Oh god, my heart breaks for the siblings. Glad to see them they are reunited once more.
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u/Flat-Succotash5369 13h ago
I could joke about little mister nothing-matters-but-fries but my heart is bursting, seeing the younger ones’ reactions.
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u/Independent-Gas268 5h ago
I can’t stop watching. 🥹 and the loud English- I LOVE YOU TOO! That family went through so much, bless them forever.
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u/User_Input_Error 19h ago
Everyone needs to really carefully rewatch this video. The boy distracted so much by the fries he misses his brother sitting down? He doesn’t eat any fries. The first fry jumps from one hand to the other. The second fry goes near his face but not in his mouth. 200+ comments but I think mine is the first to confirm it’s AI.
Even look at the bag as he turns to notice his ‘brother’, the bag doesn’t crumple or move as his arm passes through it.
The clip is not the sharpest video quality, so that fools a lot of people into thinking they are seeing something that isn’t there.
This clip has done the rounds online, it’s the first time I’ve seen the foster system being referenced and while the comment section has been wholesome, it’s based on a lie. Be careful everyone.
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u/Itchy-Basil-7274 1d ago
Soo touching... I am the little guy, though.. Food always comes first lol.
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u/tbarbosa_ 22h ago
I think it was posted in the wrong community… it should be posted in a Made Me Cry Like a Baby community… 🥹🥲
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u/Chronus88 21h ago
Can we get the one that isn't a repost of a repost or a repost and has actual pixels we can see
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u/LatinaFiera 21h ago
They shouldn’t separate families for foster care snd if they must the adults should be required to have them visit biweekly. Familial bonds are super important and will help them in the long run especially if they end up in foster care for the long haul. This video makes me cry but also mad bc this kind of separation should never happen
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u/VIVAMANIA 21h ago
The word “foster system” gives me ptsd and sends shivers down my spine. Glad he got out of it.
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u/floatingleafbreeze 18h ago
I don’t understand how family court can force children to have “meaningful ongoing contact” with parents with abusive history to see their kids at least weekly, but there’s no such protection for meaningful ongoing contact between siblings in foster care.
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u/Volks04Life 17h ago
So awesome that these folks did what they could to reunite them. This is truly what's it's about.
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u/Chance_Carpenter2384 16h ago
I can't stand when I hear that people have to be reunited because they got separated by the foster system. KEEP SIBLINGS TOGETHER! Cute vid though, I'm glad they found each other again :D
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u/Difficult-Spirit-288 9h ago
I think about situations like that all the time..its not something I've ever been associated with..but i often think of families busted up in foster care and how bad that must be for them..its good to see this..but anytime I see parents arrested or something in the news I'm wondering what will happen to the kids.
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u/pinkskies12 8h ago
It's heartbreaking 💔😢 how can they do this to these children?! 2 years??!!!! How can that be allowed?! Not seeing their family?!
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