Broken Arrow Mother and Her Three Daughters Tour All 50 States to Spotlight Foster Care Need

A Broken Arrow mother and her three daughters are using a cross-country journey as both a classroom and a platform to draw attention to the need for foster families.

Maggie Nichols and her daughters set out from Oklahoma on Aug. 1 with a bold plan: to visit all 50 states in 53 weeks.

The mission is a personal one for Nichols. She spent part of her childhood in foster care, later became a foster parent, and says more than 25 children passed through her home before she adopted her three daughters.

Nichols described her own early years in the system. "I was in and out of foster care until about 2 and a half years old, and then I was adopted. I did not get to be adopted with my biological sister though. So, I always knew I wanted to get into the foster care system and be a foster parent and to adopt at some point," she said.

She also spoke about a difficult decision she made as a teenager. "When I was 16, I found myself pregnant and I ended up doing what I felt at the time was best and putting him up for adoption," Nichols said.

Her daughters are joining her for the entire trip, and at least one of them has a goal of her own for the road: finding out which state serves the best chicken tenders.

Nichols chose not to confine the effort to Oklahoma because, she says, the need for foster families exists across the country. She hopes the trip will spark conversations in communities everywhere.

Her message is a simple one: not everyone can foster, but everyone can do something.