Foster Care to my family has taken on a lot of different meanings. My husband and I got into Foster Care to try and adopt but have found a whole new meaning and purpose through Foster Care.
The kids who have come into our home have not only changed us but those who surround us to support and care for us. My family is by far the most touched by these kids beyond my husband and I. My two sisters and my parents daily carry the burden of our hearts being touched by this phenom en called Foster Care.
My sisters pass clothing and tips, my parents help us babysit give us advise. All of my family has been extremely supportive and I know for a fact without them we could not do what we do for these kids. They also help us figure out nutrition, medicine, schooling, age appropriate behaviours and everything in between!
My parent are our rock! My mama comes and help with laundry (which never seems to stop), cook meals when I cannot get home in time to help, baby sit and support when the world seems to fall apart because a child's needs are greater than what we can help! My dad has been there in ways I cannot fathom for my husband giving him fatherly advise and helping my husband deal with me as a cry over a child I cannot help. (Even one that gets away is too many to us!)
To my family it means interrupted meals, bedtimes, teaching my niece and nephews that this little one's behaviour is not acceptable for him or anyone else but we are working with them. Not exposing my niece and nephew to behaviours that might hurt them or change their sweet spirits. Knowing that we have a little niece and nephews we have to be careful what kids we allow in our house and around them.
But overall my family's flexibility and ability to accept any race, sex or issue in a child has made our journey through Foster Care a lot more enjoyable! I know that Foster Care is not for everyone and is not for everyone who is licensed to be a Foster Care Family. But God has a plan for each and everyone of these kids.
If you are interested in becoming a Foster Parent or Family please leave me a comment and I will get you in contact with your local representative so that you can get the information needed to make an educated decision on if Fostering is the right decision for your family.
September 7, 2009
Foster Parents
This blog is to discover Foster Care issues and possible conversations on solutions. It is a place where Foster Parents can come and vent and know their identies will be safe! We hope to be able to include conversations from different Foster Families including those with many years under their belt and those with only days! IF you are interested please read and comment on the postings on this site!
Being Foster Parents means so many different things; we must be strong, weak, capable, willing and able to laugh, defiant, defensive, flexible, able to easily laugh, cry, let go, hold onto, love, listen, talk straight talk, give our opinion only when it is asked for, network, create bonds with the unlovable, play by rules that are as foreign and Europe, deal with Judges and Social Workers who are stuck in the mentality of 1950, a doctor and a nurse, a teacher and a friend.
It means loving the most vulnerable in society and yet protecting them from themselves and their birth family if necessary. Hopefully - the system will receive enough out cry and changes will continue to occur to allow the laws to change to better protect the children they sought out to originally protect!
Foster Care for my husband and I has been exhilarating and hard. We have had good and bad social workers and Judges. We have had both good and difficult children in our home. We have loved every single child that came into our house and life! There have been a few that were harder to love than the rest. But for the most part these kids come to our house; scared, alone, hurting, feeling unloved, hungry, and very very unsure of their future.
We try with every kid coming into our home that we give them a space that is just theirs, room for their clothing no matter how little they bring with them we try and have extras at our house, food no matter what time of the day or night they come in, hopefully a bath depending on the reason they came in (if physically or sexually abused we may wait until the next day to bathe them), and always take pictures of the night they came in. Some of the kids are really in bad shape coming in and others look normal and healthy and just needed a place to be for the moment.
Being Foster Parents means so many different things; we must be strong, weak, capable, willing and able to laugh, defiant, defensive, flexible, able to easily laugh, cry, let go, hold onto, love, listen, talk straight talk, give our opinion only when it is asked for, network, create bonds with the unlovable, play by rules that are as foreign and Europe, deal with Judges and Social Workers who are stuck in the mentality of 1950, a doctor and a nurse, a teacher and a friend.
It means loving the most vulnerable in society and yet protecting them from themselves and their birth family if necessary. Hopefully - the system will receive enough out cry and changes will continue to occur to allow the laws to change to better protect the children they sought out to originally protect!
Foster Care for my husband and I has been exhilarating and hard. We have had good and bad social workers and Judges. We have had both good and difficult children in our home. We have loved every single child that came into our house and life! There have been a few that were harder to love than the rest. But for the most part these kids come to our house; scared, alone, hurting, feeling unloved, hungry, and very very unsure of their future.
We try with every kid coming into our home that we give them a space that is just theirs, room for their clothing no matter how little they bring with them we try and have extras at our house, food no matter what time of the day or night they come in, hopefully a bath depending on the reason they came in (if physically or sexually abused we may wait until the next day to bathe them), and always take pictures of the night they came in. Some of the kids are really in bad shape coming in and others look normal and healthy and just needed a place to be for the moment.
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