Stories of Love...

Why Would Anyone in His or Her Right Mind Be a Foster Parent?

What can I say about Foster Parenting? At first, I went through all sorts of uncertainty, Excitement, and Nervousness.

You meet your Foster Child; hear about his/her past, and what they’ve done or what’s been done to him. You want to hold him and care for him; yet he won’t let you get that close. Soon he’s a permanent part of your home, and everything is routine.

Everything is going well.

Then the incidents start. And continue. And you think that you can’t do it anymore. Time to call it quits. Anger and mistrust have replaced the caring that once was there.

But the voices, inside and out, remind you that he has made progress, and he’s still making progress. And, although he may never admit it, he needs you there. He needs you to keep trying, so that he can keep trying. And, once again, the joy and excitement and love return to you; the impossible becomes possible.

Soon it will be his time to leave. Already, you feel the loss and emptiness. And you know he is starting to feel it too, but he will not, cannot, ever show that.

Foster Parenting is so much like parenting a biological child: the joys of growth and improvement, the hurts and struggles of adolescence, the loss and emptiness when someone close leaves. Does my heart hurt sometime? Of course! As parents, sometimes our hearts hurt so a child’s heart doesn’t have to.

Nothing is more precious than a child is. And nothing is more important than giving a child what they need to go on, with hope for their future, and the Knowledge that life will be okay.