Editor’s note: This article was originally published on June 9, 2021 and has since been updated.
Treka Ingleman is a mother of three children. Being her mother is no easy task, but Treka has her own set of challenges to overcome. As a 32-year-old single black woman, Treka assumed responsibility for her three white children. Although her biracial family has come under attack from internet trolls, Treka strongly believes that her love has no relation to race. She’s heard everything from being mistaken for the children’s babysitter to being told she was “continuing her slave mentality.” She lost her mother when she was only 6 years old. She now wants her other children to at least experience the love of her mother that she never had.
Treka welcomed her first child in 2016. Elijah Lee Hill was a 6-day-old baby whose mother was a drug addict. The following year, she fostered Alexis Bowman and her younger sister Mercedes Bowman, who were 13 and 16 years old at the time, respectively. The girls had been in foster care for years. They bond and Treka decides to adopt them.She reported that on November 1, 2019 she officially became their mother today. The road hasn’t been easy, but the Inglemans are sticking together. “People were writing things like, ‘All the black kids are in foster care and she’s putting the white kids up for adoption,'” the Cincinnati resident said. “They accused me of terrible things like self-loathing.”
Treka comes from a large family and is the youngest of 11 children. For all her years, no one taught her how to be a mother, but she was often entrusted with babysitting her nieces and nephews. Treka believes this helped her take her step towards becoming a foster parent. She did some research and found out that anyone over the age of 21 can become a foster parent, and it doesn’t matter if they are married or not. With her family’s blessing, she decided to go through the long process of obtaining her foster parent status. Her tears welled up and her heart broke as she heard the stories of some of the children in foster care. She said, “I mean, I lost my mom when I was young, but I couldn’t imagine myself without my family. At that point, I just wanted to embrace all the kids that I could.”
When she first adopted Illya, he was also addicted to drugs and was just a few days old. “He’s been glued to my hip ever since,” she said. She ended up raising the Bowman brothers. However, Alexis was the only one who arrived on the scheduled arrival date. Mercedes ran into trouble and ended up being sent to a group home instead. This separation took a toll on Alexis, and Treka because she was determined to reunite her sisters at all costs. “I immediately approached my caseworker and talked about the possibility of Mercedes moving in with us, and my caseworker was very supportive of making that happen,” she said.
“They needed a home and I had more than enough to give them,” Treka said. They instantly became part of my family. There’s no color in my family, just kids who needed someone.” When the family went out together, they got quite a few stares. But they didn’t care. “I’ve had people ask me, ‘Oh, are you babysitting?’ My answer is no. They’re my children. No questions asked. I would never call them ‘foster children. I won’t say it, but it’s my kids, because that’s what they are and always will be,” Treka explained. She continues to accept more children. On behalf of her family, to help her continue to raise her children and get her own education, especially to support Mercedes as she graduates from high school and hopes to attend college. A GoFundMe has been set up for her. You can support family here.
