Foster Parents Part 2

Take a moment to think about this, how many times has your child had to work on a project for school where they were to bring pictures of them when they were younger? Now imagine you had none to give your child how would your child feel? Most good foster parents create a book that the child can take with them to wherever their next home may be. This book is called a life book and it basically shows their life since they were in foster care. Most children in the system have no pictures from before they were put … Continue reading →

Foster Parents

When a child is in the foster care system the foster parent’s role should be pretty straight forward. You open your hearts and homes to children that have been removed from their biological families care. You offer these children a safe place to live in a caring family environment. You care for these children as if they were your own, with the knowledge that this is a temporary place for them to be. Most foster parent’s go into position for all the right reasons, to give an innocent child unconditional love and a safe place to call home. However, there … Continue reading →

Would You Use a Trash Bag for Luggage?

How would you feel if when you were moving you had to pack your worldly belongings in a black trash bag? This is a reality for too many kids in foster care. They do not get to keep the toys they played with in the foster home. They don’t get to bring their favorite books. If there were other children in their home they may lose the only friend that have when they change homes. Then the few clothes they do get to bring are way too often loaded in trash bags to bring to their new home. How would … Continue reading →

Foster Care Problems

There is a sad reality in America when it comes to how children are treated rather mistreated in the foster care system. Children that are placed in foster care already have strikes against them. The children have either been physically, mentally or sexually abused, they have lost their biological family and been placed with strangers. Shouldn’t the foster homes that they are placed in be the absolute best that it can be? Should the children in foster care have to be mistreated by a person who just wants the checks? The horror stories that you hear about foster children being … Continue reading →

Foster Placement Christmas

Halloween is on Sunday. I don’t have a traditional costume for Baby E. I have the most adorable black long-sleeved onesie with an orange pumpkin on the front and an orange tutu attached for her to wear. A friend offered a vegetable costume, but I opted to pass. It’s been so warm that I can’t put Baby E in the Halloween outfit that Grandma sent for her. I can’t see letting her sweat out the night in a big costume and the stroller. She’s only three months old and isn’t going to know what’s going on anyway. My husband and … Continue reading →

Foster & Adoptive Parents Support Groups – Part 3

The Foster and Adoptive Parents support group that my husband and I belong to is the Foster and Adoptive Parents of Collin County. The group meets the second Tuesday of the month at 6:00 PM for dinner and fellowship and then training starts at 6:30. We get two continuing education training hours at each meeting. The meetings are meant to be a family time with an easy start time and dinner. Many of the parents come prepared with their children in their jammies so they can leave the meeting at 8:30 and go straight to bed when they get home. … Continue reading →

Foster & Adoptive Parents Support Groups – Part 2

We joined the Foster and Adoptive Parents support group close to us in our county before we were licensed. We knew we were going to need not only the continuing education credits, but the support of other foster parents. I was really excited about the group at first. I sent off the registration check and application and then forgot all about it. I never heard a thing from the group. I didn’t know if meetings really happened or what the group did. The group’s website wasn’t updated and I didn’t get any emails. I was still alone. Our first placement … Continue reading →

Foster & Adoptive Parents Support Groups – Part 1

We joined the Foster and Adoptive Parents support group close to us in our county before we were licensed. We knew we were going to need not only the continuing education credits, but the support of other foster parents. We were new and everything we’d been told in our training is that parenting foster children is different. We would not be able to talk about parenting our children with our friends the way we would if they were our own children. The parenting issues may seem the same, but they’re not. The children have had life experiences beyond what they … Continue reading →

Challenging Children

I have a friend who told me a story about a baby in the foster system. This baby was in several foster homes. The foster homes were not able to adequately care for this child because her needs were greater than the homes’ abilities. No, this was not a special needs child. This baby did not need to be in a medical needs home. She just happened to be the kind of child that was more of a handful than the foster families wanted to deal with. What was her challenge? She cried non-stop. I don’t know if it was … Continue reading →

Pet Foster Care

Today I surrendered my cat back to the shelter we adopted her from. I cried the whole way to the drop-off veterinarian. I apologized to her over and again. I kissed her goodbye and left her for her new foster mom to pick her up. We adopted Tori not long after we moved to Texas. She was a kitten when we brought her home. We kept her in a room separated from the other three cats until we felt everybody had adjusted to the new arrival. Tori was a bully. She hissed and spit and tried to assert dominance even … Continue reading →