I wanted to read this book because of the back cover description but it was hard to read at times. My heart broke for the children and all they went through. It definitely will leave me changed after reading it. Thank you for the opportunity to climb into the life of this family and feel their pain for a moment in time.

Brilliant nonfiction that focuses on a singular incident and then builds from there to reveal larger issues with our social care system.

I have a lot of friends that foster and who have adopted. I was in a season of reading a lot about it when I saw this one pop up as an option on NetGalley. Wow. What a difficult, heartbreaking read. But, also accurate. I’ve heard some of the horror stories from real life people. I don’t doubt the legitimacy of the things that occurred in this book. It will make you sad and it will make you mad. Quite the turmoil of emotions going on inside. But, it’s so worth the read.

Well written and such an important topic. This definitely taught me things and made me see things from a perspective I hadn’t yet considered

This is a heartbreaking story of how the foster care system failed children. The journalism was excellent. The author did a fantastic job of digging deep into the case and giving facts without sensationalizing the case. I highly recommend it.

A heavy read. A heart wrenching read. An important read. Asgarian takes us into the lives of the Hart family, whose adoption/foster family ends in a terrible tragedy. I knew about this story before I read this book, but the insight that is given is incredibly detailed and hard to read. While I struggled to get through many parts, I think this is a gem that deserves to be recognized.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

The case of the Hart family is heartbreaking. I will never be able to wrap my mind around how or why anyone can do this to their child/ren. If you do not know of this case, the shortened version is that 6 children from the foster care system were adopted by a couple, abused by one of the wives [ as was the wife, ] and died in a murder-suicide.

The best thing I can say about this book is that it was very respectful to the victims/families involved in this case. You don't always see that in these types of true crime books, so I'm VERY glad the author took the extra time to ensure that.

So worth the read.

I have always been fascinated by the case of the Hart family, and this book handles it with extreme care, correctly digging into the broken foster care system as a major player in this narrative. In my mind, this is exactly what a true crime book should be — so thoughtful to the victims without sensationalizing the killers. I learned so much about "the system" and I'll never forget this experience.

This is an incredibly thorough deep dive into the story of how six children were failed by the foster system, to the point that at least one of the couple who adopted them was abusing them and her wife, and eventually killed them all in a murder suicide involving a cliffside and a SUV. I remember hearing about the wives, and seeing pictures of one of the kids in the context of the Ferguson protests. I like that Asgarian's focus first and foremost is on the kids, how exactly two separate families of kids from Texas came to be in the care of two white women, and what went wrong (hint: corruption, a system that is openly adversarial to birth parents, and the women's abuse of the children flying under the radar). It also dives into the birth families, and how in at least one case, they were openly trying to reunite with the children, and the brother who managed to survive all his other siblings being placed into foster care. Whether or not any reform will actually result from any of this, who knows, but honestly, I'm glad this book exists, even if I'm pretty sure the entire state of Texas CPS didn't want it to.

I remember when this case took place and all the media outlets were talking about the mothers and their histories but left out the children. I didn't even know that they have never found one of the kids. They never bothered to explore their biological families and history. I wish I could say this is the first time that I've heard of children dying because the child welfare offices in the USA are broken and incompetent, but it's not. Off the top of my head I can think of at least 4 kids that were displaying obvious signs of abuse and left to die. The children of the Hart "family" were not being abused by their biological families, the families were just poor and people of color. I cannot imagine the guilt the Aunt of Ciera, Devonte and Jeremiah feels. she had to work and there was no one to watch them and she allowed their mother to watch them for the day. Of course this is the one time CPS shows up and decides that's enough to take the kids away. I spent the entire book angry and sad. These kids should never have been left with these women. One of them had a domestic violence charge and they were still allowed to adopt. I'm genuinely livid and I hope to god we change this broken system. Thank you to the author for caring about the children's families and getting their story out without dragging anyone through the mud. We needed a window into the cps system and Asgarian delivered it.

We Were Once a Family by Roxanna Asgarian is a heartbreaking yet beautifully written story about the corruption and racial biases that prevail in the American foster care system.

Following the story of six adopted children, Asgaian thoroughly investigates their birth families, their lives, their adoption stories, and the tragedy of their deaths - without relying on sensationalism. She uncovers the ways in which race, class, and wealth affect peoples' interactions with systems and government services. Going one step further, she follows the living sibling to highlight the generational trauma of foster care.

I've never had something so compassionately written infuriate me so much. Would definitely recommend!

We Were Once a Family: A Story of Love, Death, and Child Removal in America – Roxanna Asgarian – 2023 –
The tragic deaths involving a family of eight and the failure of state child welfare agencies that failed to protect the adopted children involved: Markis,19; Hanna, 16; Devonte, 15; Jeremiah, 14; Abigail, 14; Ciera, 12; is the focus of this critical and disturbing narrative. On March 26, 2018 California state investigators found the wreckage of a family SUV along the Pacific Coast Highway. The driver of the car had accelerated, no skid marks were found, huge amounts of Benadryl were listed in toxicology reports of the children’s bodies. The crash and deaths were a deliberate act and determined to be a murder-suicide by the adoptive parents Sara and Jennifer Hart.

The massive media coverage that followed was intense. Roxanna Asgarian, a court journalist for The Texas Tribune, (Houston) studied and researched the Hart adoption case for nearly five years for this book. She was placed in an unfortunate position to tell the birth families in Texas of their children’s deaths, they were never informed. The children were forcibly removed from their birth families in Texas (2006-08) and child custody rights were immediately terminated. The Adoption and Safe Families Act (1997) that required a family reunification plan with minimal time spent in foster care was blatantly disregarded and ignored by state officials. The children were placed on the Texas Adoption Resource Exchange for fast-track adoption as soon as possible. It was never determined why a white out of state lesbian couple would be more suitable parents for six traumatized children of color some with learning disabilities and all with a great need for health, social, and educational support services.

Before the children were withdrawn from public schools, the Hart’s were reported to Child Protective Services six times between 2010-11 and in that time frame Sara Hart was charged with Domestic Violence and received a 90-day suspended sentence with a year’s probation. The Hart’s may have avoided further notice and questioning by child welfare agencies by moving the children from Minnesota to Oregon and Washington state. At the time of the tragedy, a new investigation of the Hart’s had been launched by CPS. There were few records of the children receiving any medical, dental, or educational services. Since the Harts were receiving about half of their family income from the state of Texas adoption subsidies, there should have more accountability and stringent verification and welfare checks into status of the children’s health and safety with federal, state or government agencies.

The state of Texas excessively claimed federal funds for adoption placement services, and seemed to provide inadequate funding for state residential treatment centers (RTC’s) that largely provided services for foster children, at risk youth, and/or wards of the state. Social workers, child experts and advocates agree that RTC’s are not the best placements for children/youth/teens yet they serve a necessary and needed purpose. As a nation, our public officials and law makers often fail to invest the needed funding for child and family services—our national “safety net” is threadbare (when compared to the spending of other developed countries and nations) it remains disgraceful. Through this book readers have a clear understanding of child removal and how outcomes can change or be improved. Our future as a nation depends on it. **With thanks to Farrar Strauss and Giroux for the DDC for the purpose of review.

This is an excellently researched book about an enraging topic - how the US child welfare system is a terrible system that is complicit in the deaths of the 6 children who were adopted by the white women couple who drove them off a cliff in California a few years ago. The book goes deep into who the children were, and how they ended up adopted in a faraway state and their relatives never knew what happened to them. Definitely a good book to read along with Torn Apart by Dorothy Roberts.

this was a really interesting look at the child care system and adoption process within america and the way families are treated. really horrifying at parts and i read it slowly over a couple of weeks, googling when i needed to as i hadnt heard of this case before. really well told and with a lot of care

This was a very well written and researched book. It was a heart-wrenching look into the foster care/adoption system. The story was interesting and had me rushing back to it to get in a few more chapters.

This is one of the most eye opening, thoroughly researched non-fiction books I have read in a long time. If I was made of money I would send a copy of this book to EVERY member of the house and senate so that they could see what effect their policies actually have on real human beings. This book was about a subject I knew next to nothing about, but now I feel the desire to be an advocate and fight for improvements to the system that is so clearly flawed. The fact that anyone in the judicial system, or child welfare system, think that following ONLY guidelines is the best thing for children is absolutely appalling. Poverty is not an excuse to remove children from their families especially if the state is just going to pay someone else to raise them. People are not boxes to be checked on forms. This book has a great blend of facts and storytelling that people who like true-crime books will be immersed from the second they start reading. While the main case in question is definitely an anomaly it is also a tragedy that should never have happened. This book frequently brought me to tears about how a flawed system, that is meant to protect, can do so much harm. This book also touches on corruption of the judicial system which has been in need of an overhaul for quite some time. Hopefully books like this can open people's eyes to what is occurring around them, but as this book points out, America has had a long history of ignoring or punishing impoverished children.

On March 26, 2018, Jennifer and Sarah Hart’s car was found wrecked after driving off a cliff with their six adopted Black children inside. An investigation into the family and the child welfare system in the USA reveals a bleak reality.

My favourite thing about this true crime book was the focus on the kids and their biological families. Their stories and perspectives were widely ignored in the mainstream media. I liked that Asgarian provided context for how the kids ended up in the system, and what happened to them after they were placed with the Harts. There was a lot of research about how the system is failing families and children, which was really sad to read about but I feel more educated to know it now. I wish there were some more firm answers about what happened that night.

We Were Once a Family is a heartbreaking and infuriating book that I could not put down. Roxanna Asgarian did an amazing amount of research and clearly explains the genesis of the foster care system and the problems that lie within and get ignored or made worse by politicians and agencies meant to help. I both read and listened to this book and found each to be emotional and engrossing. Learning every step along the way where the system broke down or was played by corrupt officials to the detriment of the children and their families and allowing Jennifer and Sarah Hart to prey on children with little to no actual oversight left me feeling sick to my stomach. The murders of the children that they were supposed to be caring for may have been the end of the story for the Hart family, but Asgarian provides the full back story on the birth families for the six kids and how they lost their children as well as how they're faring today. I can't even begin to fathom how any of them feel, most especially Dontay who was left behind in horrible conditions at a foster treatment facility while his brothers and sister were sent off to be adopted and ended up being considered the "lucky" one to survive his own terrible treatment there. Kudos to Asgarian for taking on this emotional project and handling it with such grace while digging so deeply into this corrupt system. Kudos also to the families for opening up about their struggles and the pain of trying to raise families on the edges of a system that doesn't offer real support to those dealing with poverty and substance abuse. How we care for the least of us reflects on all of us. This book will stay with me for a very long time. Thank you to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for the early listen in exchange for my honest opinion.

Received as a free ARC from NetGalley.

I was first introduced to the Harts through media headlines. I then was so interested I started listening to a podcast about them which i enjoyed. I was so excited to receive this free ARC as this would be the first time I would hear about the biological families. The book also covers the foster care system. Unfortunately, I knew some about the foster care system such as some abuse,etc. but did not realize the extent and the injustice and had even had experience with it. It was definitely an eye opening experience. It will be interesting to see what, if anything, happens in light of this case. Definitely worth a read and some parts are especially hard to read because of the events they depict.

Thank you NetGalley and Farrar, Strauss and Giroux for the eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I saw this on NetGalley and had never heard of this story, even though it made national headlines. We Were Once a Family was informative, well-written, and how the system failed these innocent children. This book was also truly eye-opening to me. It breaks my heart that there are so many children out there placed with foster families or adopted and endure neglect and abuse. No child should EVER have to go through that.
Roxanna Asgarian definitely put a lot of hard work into this investigation and truly advocates for change within our child "protection" services and the urgent need to bring awareness to the safety of children within our communities.

Highly recommend!