Instead of the traditional quick takes this week, the topic of fostering has been on my heart. So I am blogging...and adding numbers. :)
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I LOVE talking about foster care adoptions. It is always an adrenaline rush when I get to share with others that you do not actually have to have 20k banked to afford adoption. Also, it seems unfair, but we had zero wait for either of our placements. In our county there are lots of kids that need homes. I am grateful to be the mama that gets to provide that safe forever home for my two little ones.
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Scrolling through waiting children lists is so challenging. 27,000 kids age out of foster care every year without a forever family. And then there are sibling sets. I wish that I had the courage in our childless years to jump full throttle into a sibling set.
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Last year Catie's teenage half-sibling entered into foster care. A home was found for her before we even knew of her situation. We have begun visits with T & her foster mom. Her foster mom is a 32 year old single teacher that was a mentor for T. I am so impressed that this woman stepped up to the challenge of parenting a teenager. They are such a unique and perfect fit.
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Check out one of my favorite foster adoption resources for Myths & Realities of Foster Care.
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I tried to reorganize my blog a bit. On the top I have a new page on the topic of Open Adoptions. On my side bar I added a few labels on the topic to make searching easier.
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I totally get how hard it is for people to wrap their brains around fostering. But knowing how many kids are out there waiting, I would encourage would be foster parents to do whatever it takes to break into the world of foster care and start meeting these kids. In our adoption & foster care journeys we were open to just about everything except a drug addicted child. Now I can not imagine my life without the gift of my sweet Catie. Meeting foster kids in person gives you even more courage to say yes.
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Resources are available! I listed a great one, The Dave Thomas Foundation. I would also love to help anyone with questions as they consider navigating down this road.
5 comments:
I love reading your posts about foster adoptions. We've had 2 domestic infant adoptions and are now in the foster-to-adopt program, hoping for a sibling group.
My heart is for foster care too!! Although our license expired 14 months ago and we are not feeling called to update it at this time...I have a feeling that foster care is still a path God wants to challenge us with.
LOL about a drug addicted baby not being on your list of "ok issues". It was not on ours either, but I can't imagine my life with out Isaiah! God knew better than me!!
We have a lot of reasons (serious ones like...we could lose our house if I don't work) why we can't grow our family right now, but maybe someday??
I think I was supposed to read this :). I will definitely have to read more of your blog!
This is amazing. Thank you. I think that if we reach "that point" in our TTC journey to give our dd a sibling and possibly even if we don't, we are going to look into foster care. It's something that I feel tugging on my heart.
I volunteer in foster care review in my state, I find it very rewarding. It takes a lot of non-judgment.
So awesome, you get to keep in touch with half siblings. It means so much that children know who their kin are.
Just because bio-parents are unable to care for their child, it doesn't mean they have to lose their family.
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