Woman who adopted 3 sisters shares the resilience and joy of motherhood: 'You're allowed to cry'

The decision to adopt a child and raise them as your own can be a challenging one. However, CEO, podcaster and social media influencer, Nicole Walters ended up adopting not one but three sisters from Baltimore, per PEOPLE. These three girls came in with challenges of their own since one of them was battling cancer and another one was addicted to alcohol. “In ten years, I’ve experienced ten lives,” the 38-year-old mom who resides in California, told the outlet.

Walters was informed that one of the girls had approximately six months to live and another one was still in rehab. However, Walters had gone through a lot of struggles already and she was not afraid of taking up the challenge of adopting the sisters. In her latest memoir "Nothing is Missing: A Memoir of Living Boldly," which was released on October 10, 2023, Walters disclosed her inspirational journey from founding a company to becoming a motivational speaker and then a mother of three girls named Ally, Krissy and Daya.

“Real women press start but sometimes you are also going to eat a copious amount of cheese in a Target parking lot," Walter said about her resilience. Her memoir details everything about founding her business training firm called Inherit Learning Company in 2021, her divorce, finding a new partner, her own health issues and the struggles of her adopted daughters. “You have to confront and be empowered. But first, you are allowed to cry. Are we going to cry or put on the big girl panties? Both. We are going to do both,” she said about facing all the obstacles in life. 

Walters and her ex-husband Josh met the three girls on October 14, 2014. On a date night, they encountered a woman panhandling a 3-year-old Ally. Walters could not ignore it and the former couple ended up reaching the sisters' apartment where they found Krissy, 11 and Daya, 14. After their birth mother went to prison and was released, she gave Walters and her ex-husband the full legal guardianship of her daughters in September 2015.

“I thought I would be a mentor, but it turned into being a mom,” Walters said. All of a sudden, Walters had a lot on her plate. She had to focus on Krissy's recovery from Hodgkin's disease and deal with Daya's addiction. “It helps that we are all a little weird and open with each other,” Ally, the youngest one shared. “When I came into this family, I knew they would be super nice, but also strict enough to make sure I got my stuff done.”

Walters' life went on a rollercoaster ride as she separated from Josh after 14 years of marriage and in 2022, she got engaged to a musician named Alex. “What is great about me and my family is that we are good on our feet. What we can do is choose each other and we still do," she remarked, “I have followers who have watched the girls over the past decade and kept an eye out for us. There’s a misconception out there that we are all on our own. We are never truly alone because people want to help.”

Surprisingly enough, Walters admits that even though she had earned a lot of money in her career, she still wasn't satisfied until she adopted her daughters. It gave her the extra bit of happiness she needed. “People don’t pay attention to black girls. Whether they’re lost, whether they’re missing, no one keeps track of them,” she writes in her memoir.

“No one sees them. One of the greatest hurts of my heart is that my girls lived down the street for almost four years and I didn’t even know they were there,” she adds. Ever since the sisters came under the care of Walters, Krissy was informed before her 17th birthday that there is no possible potential for her disease to return and Daya has been sober since 2021 after entering rehab. The family continues to update their inspirational story on social platforms to empower others who are going through similar struggles.