Making Lives Count, One Foster Child at a Time!
One by one, we can help improve their lives!
If we as Foster Parents can make one foster child viable in our community/society, we can and should be proud of our endeavors and even prouder of theirs.
For a long time, I have wanted to do foster care but I was talked out of it many times. With thoughts like it is too time consuming. You live in a glass house when you do foster care. They will ruin your house. Again, you have no privacy, no time alone. As it so happens, all of this is true to a big point but there are rewards. There are many rewards actually. There is the help that you can give to one child. The love that you give alone has its own reward. The laughter and smiles that you see in their faces that wipes out some of the hurt and pain. Foster care is hard. It isn’t a nine to five job, but a 24X7 mountain climbing expedition. Most of our children are considered Therapeutic Care which translates into difficult children with heavy needs. So besides dealing with those needs, we also have to deal with the “bad name” we get that is still associated with foster parents.
I did foster care as a single parent for over two years, when I met and then later married my husband, he thought my children just needed stability and structure. After about six months, he changed his mind. Foster care is still my passion and thankfully I am still my husband's passion or we would no longer be doing foster care.
Some children can handle being in a “home “ setting and some are so used to being in a hospital or a residential setting that it is even more difficult for them to adjust to a home setting that isn’t their home. Imagine going to a foreign land and being plopped down in the middle of this new culture. You can’t speak their language but you are to adjust to their ways, ideas and language within two weeks. It doesn’t work that way for anyone, especially children in pain and hurting.
I could go on and on about the pros and the cons, the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly; foster care imbibes all those things and more. On one hand I have shed more tears and become more frustrated and angry then in anything else I have done but on the other hand I have laughed more and felt more deeply for them and because of them, than in anything else in my life.
This is just a small, very small introduction into foster care; my views and ideas from doing this for eight years.
My mottos to my children are: Never give up! You can do this; it is worth the effort and hard work that you have to put in to getting your life back together. But you have to do the work. We can help you, give you the tools to succeed but you still have to pick them up and use them.
I would now like to introduce you to my three foster boys: Juan, James and Chris. This introduction is going to tell you a little about each boy and mainly be on the light, happy, I am making it, (because they are) side. Please use the links at the top with their names to meet each one.
My last thing would be to plead with anyone that has the room and the heart, please think about foster care. It is at least worth looking into. I have sites you can visit on this page.
pa children in foster care
Northwestern Human Services
Bethany Christian Services
