May is Foster Care Awareness Month. From making a meal to babysitting to donating, praying to mentoring to becoming a foster parent, EVERYONE CAN DO SOMETHING. Here are 10 ways you can stand for children in foster care
All tagged foster parenting
The Answers to All of Your Foster Parenting Questions
I don’t just struggle through the “how” questions, I struggle through the “why” questions, the “what if” ones. I don’t just question myself, I question God.
"This is Us" Isn't Just a TV Show
Seeing foster care and adoption on the screen like this is a gift to foster and adoptive families. But it’s not just a gift to those of us who are living it. It’s a gift to everyone else, too.
“Are You OK With This?”: Saying Good-bye to My Son
When his worker called to tell me that his family had been ruled out, she asked if I would be willing to adopt him. “Well, I love him...and I would love to be his mom forever...but I don’t think I’m supposed to be...and I think I know who is.”
I Come From the Right Side of the Tracks, So It's Not My Problem
For all of the stark differences of these towns, there is one reality that binds them together. Both towns need these child protection offices. Both towns have broken families, struggling parents, hurting children.
I Need Answers. How Do You Do This Foster Care Thing?
Foster mom, how do you balance the impossible tension of loving a child like they’re your own, when they’re not? I thought about it. How do you do it? And then I realized: The love is in your heart. The what ifs and questions and worries are in your mind.
Considering Foster Care or Adoption? Read These Words From a Former Foster Child #writeourheartout - Sabrina
You are giving a child the chance to live a better life. A chance that they deserve. You are giving them the love and care that they so desperately need. You are making a lifelong, lasting difference in the life of another human being.
Being a Foster Child Taught Me Love #writeyourheartout - Sabrina's Story
I never understood why “foster care” and “adoption” had this eerie and peculiar reputation behind them, when those two things are responsible for the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.
Licensed & Waiting: Tips For Getting Foster Care Placements
Looking back now I realize it was only three months that I waited for my first placement, but at the time it felt like an eternity. Take the overall lack of phone ringing I had expected, add in a few potential placements falling through, and I was in full will-it-ever-happen-distress mode. Every story of a child languishing without a family was like a dagger in my heart. “I”m here. I’m waiting. Give me a child to love!”
"What to Expect" The First Week of a New Foster Placement
As I’ve been posting about the first week with our newest placement, I’ve had many new or soon-to-be foster parents reach out with thanks and questions. It's reminded me of just how clueless I was at the beginning. Maybe you, new foster mama, are feeling clueless yourself.
A Vet's Foster Care Journey: Jerry's Story for the US Children's Bureau
One time, a small seven year old girl quietly approached me as I sat in a dark living room after work. “Jerry, can I tell you something?” she asked. “When I first met you I was very, very scared because you are very, very big…"
From 1 to 50: Karen's Story for the US Children's Bureau
My husband and I started the process of becoming foster parents. At the beginning, we wanted only one young child. To date, we’ve had 50 children in our home. We went from a three bedroom home to a six bedroom home, allowing us to have the room for more children to love.
Foster Care is Contagious
Simply knowing about “foster children” isn’t very compelling. But getting to know a foster child, one specific child, can change us. When we know their stories and speak their names and see their faces and hold their hands, they enter our hearts.
Ready To Be Done With These Multi-Colored Maps? There’s One More You Have To See.
No matter who you voted for, whether you’re celebrating or mourning, the election is over. The advocating and voting are done, there’s nothing more to do there. But there is good to do. There is a way that we can affect the future of this nation.
You Don't Always Reap What You Sow
As a foster mom, you may not get the fruit of prayers answered and hopes realized. You may not get proms, graduations, weddings, and grandchildren. Let’s be real. You may not even get the fruit of bedtime routines achieved, table manners acquired, multiplication tables learned, or secrets whispered. But what you will get, what we foster parents are working for, is the joy of being faithful right now. Today, I have today. And I will faithfully train and parent and love this child today and for as many more “todays” as I get.
She Doesn't Know What Mommy Means
To this little girl, “mommy” meant the female adult of the house, the lady who reached something you couldn't and refilled your juice. Having five “mommies” in five months, she hadn’t had the chance yet to learn what mommy meant.
Fainting & Foster Placements
This post is not a light-hearted story about my penchant for fainting. This post is about a call I just received. A six month old boy is being released from the hospital tomorrow...
The Woman Who Did This To Him
While his little body should’ve still been safe in his mother’s womb, he was lying in a plastic crib, fighting off the poison he’d been fed for 32 weeks. At four weeks old, he was suffering through the painful withdraw that conquers grown men. At four pounds, his little heart was fighting to beat, his little lungs fighting to breathe.
