A teen found a forever home after his TODAY appearance sparked an “instant” connection for his future adoptive parents. In the fall of 2020, married couple Matt Bungo and Joe French were watching a TODAY segment with Hoda Kotb about teens in the foster care system who hoped to be adopted. One of those kids was a 16-year-old boy named Samuel who had spent the prior six years in foster care. Samuel told Hoda that he yearned for a family that was “warm and whole and just together.
At the time, Samuel was living in a residential community for boys and met Bungo and French over FaceTime. He was cautious, having experienced two potential adoptions that never came to fruition. “I had honestly given up on getting my hopes up,” Samuel told TODAY on June 14. “You could just tell they were nice people. They felt real.” French and Bungo adopted Samuel, then 17, in July 2021. Bungo recalled Samuel’s arrival in their home.