![\"Britt](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/45373994-ab94-48e7-b2b4-e44849fd8e4a_1735249415.jpg\")
<\/a>CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\nInside her Cape Coral kitchen, Tamanika Rooks realizes her dreams have risen to reality.<\/p>\n
Those dreams were filled with sweet treats and teachable moments with her three children.<\/p>\n
“The oldest, he has sensory issues,” said Tamanika. “Then, of course, you’ve got the two’s. You know how two-year-olds can be. And then Joshua, now he’s learned how to walk two-and-a-half weeks ago, so you know, he’s busy.”<\/p>\n
There’s no recipe for motherhood, and Tamanika’s path here has been anything but easy.<\/p>\n
“After losing four of my own, one I had to birth him and then the other three were early miscarriages,” said Tamanika. “I figured that God had another reason and way of me being a mom.”<\/p>\n
Even after losing four children, Tamanika didn’t give up. That’s when she decided to foster.<\/p>\n
“What if I get too attached?” said Tamanika. “How will that feel? I wanted to guard my heart.”<\/p>\n
Despite her fears, today, Tamanika has fostered six children.<\/p>\n
“Once you get one, you get another one, and you keep getting them. It’s all just natural and you keep doing it,” said Tamanika. <\/p>\n
So far, she’s adopted two. Her third child, by what she calls a miracle, she gave birth to last year.<\/p>\n
“It was a long journey, but you know, I’m thankful that I was chosen to fulfill this need. It’s a real big need for other foster moms,” said Tamanika.<\/p>\n
Tamanika believes she’s where she is today thanks to the community that’s backed her.<\/p>\n
“When we actually had this resource center here locally, we realized the need for connection was the biggest need of all,” said Kacie Hass.<\/p>\n
Hass is the co-founder of a non-profit called Foster Village<\/a>, which connects foster moms to support groups and resources. It’s where Tamanika received help and where she gives it today.<\/p>\n “I love how much she wants to still stand in everything she’s doing and still help everyone else at whatever stage they are,” said Hass.<\/p>\n For Tamanika, the family she dreamed of was worth every minute of the wait.<\/p>\n “We’re here now. They were adopted, and we’re a real family. A real family with the name and all,” said Tamanika.<\/p>\n DOWNLOAD\u202fthe free\u202fGulf Coast News app<\/a>\u202ffor your latest news and alerts on breaking news, weather, sports, entertainment, and more on your phone or tablet. And check out the Very Local Gulf Coast app<\/a> to stream news, entertainment and original programming on your TV.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cape Coral woman still feels called to be a mom after losing four children CAPE CORAL, Fla. \u2014…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349355,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[7070,29350,209,211,210,39347,142973,4277,3979,28,897,7069,126700,142975,142972,8934,4329,142959,8566,60469,114421,57655,1933,91932,142976,142974,142971,88176],"class_list":["post-349354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-adoption","tag-alico-road","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news","tag-cape-coral-woman","tag-child-loss","tag-community-support","tag-custody","tag-florida","tag-fort-myers","tag-foster-care","tag-foster-children","tag-foster-family","tag-foster-mom","tag-foster-village","tag-gulf-coast-news","tag-hourslong-standoff","tag-i-75","tag-joshua","tag-miscarriage","tag-motherhood","tag-murder","tag-resource-center","tag-sensory-issues","tag-support-groups","tag-tamanika-rooks","tag-wbbh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349354"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349354\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}