Jen Lilley Fan

Getting to know the foster care system

Jen Lilley: My parents were kind of unofficial foster parents, meaning we had people who would live with our family from time to time who maybe had just fallen on difficult times and needed some assistance getting back on their feet. So the idea having someone outside of my family unit stay with me for extended periods of time was not foreign or scary to me. That’s where my empathy and seeds of my love for foster care really started.

Jason, like many Americans, didn’t know a lot about foster care and really believed the myth and misconception that kids in foster care are associated with the juvenile delinquent system, they’re “bad kids.” Where the truth is these are children who have found themselves in an extremely broken system through no fault of their own, but generally due to severe neglect or abuse.

The goal of foster care is not actually adoption; it’s actually to reunify the families, but in some cases it’s just really not safe for the child, and those children become eligible for adoption. So when one of my mentees was facing reunification, that was a very bad, unsafe idea for her. That was the catalyst for Jason, and we decided to get licensed.

Jason Wayne: Well, she just asked me, “What’s the harm in taking the classes to find out more information? Rather than coming to your own conclusion without knowing all the details.” That was very logical to me. I thought, “Okay, we can do classes to find out about this.” And so we did.

Continue reading at people.com

Jen Lilley and her husband Jason Wayne are expanding their happy family!

The proud parents of three are excited to announce they are expecting another baby next year.

“I’m so, so happy,” Lilley, 37, tells PEOPLE, joking that the future family of six is “going to have to get a bus now.”

Lilley and Wayne are parents to half-brothers Kayden, 5, and Jeffrey, 3, whom they adopted from foster care in 2019 and 2020, respectively, and welcomed daughter Julie, now 2, in 2019.

“Julie was planned, but this was definitely a surprise,” says Lilley, who was on her way to Canada to film her new TV movie Royally Wrapped for Christmas when she sensed a change in her body.

“I don’t know what it is with me, but I honestly will know like day after conception, I’m very aware of my body,” she says. “I felt very pregnant and I thought, ‘This is very weird.’ I was excited, but also it was so strange. I was in this long customs line in Canada waiting for my work permit, and I’m texting my husband and our nanny via group text, ‘I think I’m pregnant right now?’

Continue reading at People.

I’ve added additional stills, promos, and on set photos for Jen’s film “Yes, I Do” to the gallery. Enjoy!