Foster Care

Coupling the enneagram with Adoption and Foster Care

I have ten children with eight distinct personalities among them. One of them, whom I guess could be dubbed an “Enthusiast,” is always on to the next thing. He struggles with gluttony. He’s my tallest and thinnest son, but he has an insatiable appetite for...

Parenting Your Child with ADHD

Parenting Your Child with ADHD   Did you know children in foster care are considered a “special health care” population by the American Academy of Pediatrics (1)? What does this mean? It means that kids who have lost their families are likely to have more health challenges than...

Nurturing Biological Relationships

For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose. Philippians 2:13   Our family has not had a “typical” fostering experience. When I think of being foster parents I often think of a revolving door with children coming...

The Kindling of Community

Our youngest son had gone to the doctor a couple days before and our pediatrician had confirmed it–strep. He told us our 8-day-old foster daughter wasn’t in danger of getting it, but by the middle of the first full day of her being in our...

The Impact of One

At any given time in the United States, there are more than a half million children in the foster care system. In my state alone, the figure hovers near 14,000. In a nearby suburban county, the disheartening ratio is almost 200 children in foster care,...

FOOD FIGHT!

When my husband and I became foster parents, we knew one thing for sure, we would steer clear of eating disorders. We knew my challenging experiences with a close relative during my formative years might trigger a familiar frustration, so we were careful to avoid...

Three Truths

About Families Who Foster and Adopt - Observations from the Side of the Pool 350 people were there—almost exclusively foster families and adoptive families. We had an enormous pool, a kids’ summer time favorite—greased watermelon polo, a hilarious DJ, and a triple zip line racing above...

“Zero Entry” Foster Care

For most people, foster care is “zero entry” in that very few of us have chosen to take the plunge into being foster parents. For every 1000 American households, roughly 1 will be a foster home. Meanwhile, each year, approximately 7 of every 1000 U.S....

5 Ways to Encourage
Foster Families

We all wonder how best to support our friends and family who are fostering. Let’s face it, foster families are usually in it for the long haul and they need a large safety net of people they can rely on to remain true to their...

The Refugees of
Foster Care

With one heartrending image the tide turned. For Europe, what was long a faraway, hand-wringing perplexity became an “up in arms we have to do something” call to action. Political leaders no longer avoided a position, vague offers of assistance no longer satisfied. Even now,...