Stories of Love...

I Was a Foster Mom

Whenever I'm asked why we do Foster care I wonder why not do it? It has been a part of my thinking most of my life. I had an Aunt who did Foster Parenting as I was growing up and it was what inspired me to think in that direction.

After our three oldest children were pretty much on their way - we still felt the calling to do something for other children so we became licensed Foster Parents - We stayed licensed for nine years taking in somewhere around 30 children. Our goal was always to reunite the children with their families.

One of my favorite experiences while foster parenting was when we had a very young Mom with a very medically fragile child placed with us. It was so exciting to watch the Mom grow and mature in her ability to care for her very special daughter. She always loved her baby, but hadn't had a very good role model to learn parenting skills. She is now married and has two beautiful little boys. We are blessed to have the opportunity to know her children and watch them grow. We often hear from her and she has several times thanked us for giving her the chance to become a good Mom.

We actively worked with the Biological parents whenever it was possible. The best of times was when everything would come together, however, even when things didn't work out the way we wanted we always felt like the chance to give a child at least a small picture of a loving, stable, environment was worth everything. We were often challenged by the children that came into our home however the blessings we received far out weighed the challenges.

When children left we were sad but new children were never far behind. In fact I'm not sure that we were ever without at least one foster child during the time we were licensed. You may ask why we gave up our license. Well, we have been blessed with the opportunity to adopt two of the boys that were placed with us as foster children. They are now 10 yrs and almost 7 yrs. One of our boys has struggled with attachment and the foster children coming and going just was not in his best interest. They keep us young, at least most of the time.