Family Contact

Gosh am I happy to be here!

My name is Donna Payne, my husband Frank and I have been married for nearly 31 years. We are the parents of seven. Three of our kids came to us by birth: Steph (age 29), Shaun (age 27) and Nick (age 24). Four came to us through adoption: Shante' (age 21), Josh (age 20) and DeSean (age 18). We will be finalizing the adoption of our seventh child, our son D. (age 15) sometime in May.

We have one beautiful daughter-in-law, Kim. And of course, I have to tell you about our three grand children: two granddaughters ages almost 4 and 18 months and one grandson age 17 months. All beautiful, intelligent and wonderful kids (of course!)

My husband and I have also been foster parents in the State of New Mexico for nearly 23 years. We are currently fostering 8 children ranging in age from 2 months to 13 years. One of my passions is to support our foster children's birth parents while they work their treatment plans to get their children back home.

My mom will tell you that all I ever wanted to be is a mom - I think she worried about me because I wasn't career minded growing up. Now, my parents couldn't be more proud of all their grandchildren, no matter how their grandchildren came to them (or how long they might stay!)

I am excited to be a Family Contact for the FIESTA Project. I have a lot to offer families that are at the very beginning of the adoption process or feel they are at the end of their ropes with their kids. I am confident that with the support and training that we (the FIESTA Project staff) have to offer the community, we can not only help save families, we will be able to enhance relationships within families!

My hope is that every adoptive family in the state of New Mexico will become familiar with the FIESTA Project and use all that we have to offer.