Kinship care places kids in foster care in the homes of family members or 'like' family members

On average about 10 children and youth will go into Colorado's foster care system every day. Many of those children will find homes with family members, which is called kinship care. As part of National Adoption Month, the Colorado Department of Human Services honored a kinship care family that is supporting and raising awareness about this kind of foster care.

William Murray and Kimberly Griffin-Murray have adopted their two granddaughters, Shaylee, and Cheyenne.

"Shaylee was my son's first born daughter," Griffin-Murray explained.

The Murray's got the call to care for Shaylee, after she was hospitalized for abuse and neglect. She suffered a traumatic brain injury, and now needs significant care.  

"The nurses taught me how to care for her when she was released," Griffin-Murray said.

She went on to become a certified nursing assistant. The couple also took in Shaylee's sister, Cheyenne, when she came along.

"I believe that children should stay together," Griffin-Murray said.

The girls do pretty much everything together, with a helping hand from their aunt, LaShea. Griffin-Murray has been so impacted by this turn that her journey took, that she started The Shaylee Foundation, which supports kinship families, and raises awareness about reporting child abuse.

"I wish someone had done that for my grandbaby, had heard the cries, had seen what was going on and had helped her," Griffin-Murray told CBS News Colorado.

The grandmother is now mother again, but just keeps moving forward. Now she's working on a degree to be a social worker.

"I would have rather been the grandma that got them on the weekend, every other weekend, but to be in it 100-percent, I wouldn't change it for the world," she said with a laugh.

In 2020, 3,116 Colorado children lived in kinship care, which can extend beyond biological family members to a neighbor, a friend's parents, a teacher, or a coach.