Nevada Man Who Adopted 3 Foster Brothers Opens Up About His 'Adventure' of Fatherhood
"There was no handbook. What I've done to guide myself through this experience has really been just reflecting on my own childhood and what felt good and what didn't"
A Nevada man who first made headlines when he adopted three foster brothers is sharing an update and opening up about the “adventure” of fatherhood.
As PEOPLE previously reported, Jason Smith took in the boys — Taveon, 12, Ireon, 11, and 10-year-old Tayvon — after coming across their information on an adoption website.
By late April 2022, the trio had moved into Smith's home as his foster children. Nine months later, they officially became his sons in a Nevada courtroom, cheered on by his 30 friends in person and 30 more watching online. "The judge was blown away," Smith told PEOPLE in 2023.
Smith said in a new interview with TV station WDSU published on June 16 that he was inspired to adoption after losing his father on Jan. 20, 2021.
"I felt a way about not providing him with grandkids,” he said. “There was a level of purposefulness that I didn't have.”
Smith’s home was the boys’ sixth foster placement in their young lives.
Smith told Craig Melvin in a September 2023 segment on the Today show that he was initially only looking to adopt one child but found himself drawn to the trio when he spotted them.
“It seemed like fate and destiny wanted us to be connected,” he said then.
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Since then, Smith said fatherhood has “been like an adventure,” per WDSU's latest interview. The family also does lots of traveling, having visited multiple countries and even going on a Disney cruise.
Smith said he was prepared for some fatherly duties, but he is still learning on the go.
Related: Parents Forced to Adopt Their Biological Twins Celebrate Getting Surrogacy Laws Changed (Exclusive)
"There was no handbook,” he told the station. “What I've done to guide myself through this experience has really been just reflecting on my own childhood and what felt good and what didn't.”
Meanwhile, the boys say they are thrilled with their home. "I think I feel like happy and like a joy that like we have someone who is willing, willing to take any child,” said Taveon.
Added Tayvon: "We are really awesome, and that's what really matters."
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