Sunday, May 15, 2011

You.

Being a foster parent can feel lonely.

Some of us have supportive families...and some of us don't.

Some of us have a great support system in place...and some us don't.

Some of us work with great agencies (ahem)...and some of us don't.


One thing that has made a world of difference for ME is having YOU. Some of you have been with me on my worst days. You have prayed for me, you have prayed for my kids, and you cared about what was going on. When they had to go live with their bio families you understood, because you have been there. When you are going through things like that talking to people who have no clue what it is like doesn't always help. It is amazing how just a few sentences left in my comment section managed to carry me through...because I knew I wasn't alone.

This is not an easy road, but you guys have made it bearable.

Thank you.


Now, because I remember being a new foster mom and not really knowing anyone else who fostered, I want to build a place that makes it easy to find other people who are doing what WE are doing.

I am going to be putting together a page dedicated to bloggers who are currently becoming foster parents or are already foster parents. If you fall in these categories I would LOVE to have your blog on my list. If you would like to be included please leave me a comment with your blog address and a paragraph about your situation - how long you have fostered, how many kids you have had, how many you have adopted, ect.

I am pretty excited to put this together because I would have LOVED to have a list like this back when I first stumbled upon the blog world.

Also, don't forget out my giveaway in the post below :)

14 comments:

Learning to Parent said...

My husband and I have been doing foster care for 11 months. We have been married for 5 years and have been unable to have children of our own. We have had the same three foster children for 11 months (all boys with the same mother). We are open to adoption but the plan is still reunification at this time. I am thinking this case is going to be open for a long time so who knows what the future holds!

http://crashcourseinparenting.blogspot.com/

Cherub Mamma said...

My husband and I have fostered for about three years -- not all consecutive though. We were licensed for two years when we lived in the Midwest. We adopted a baby boy at birth and also cared for a 2yo boy for six months while his family worked towards reunification.

Due to several major cross-country moves, we had to take a break from fostering until last year. After going through all the trainings, homestudies, background checks, etc. again...we got our license in the farthest southern part of the country possible in the fall of 2010.

We have only had three placements since September 2010. We've also done lots of respite for other foster families.

We've got two additional kids in our family (our biological book-ends).

We've never actively pursued adoption. Though, if the doors opened, we'd like to adopt a sibling group. For now though, we're just riding the foster parenting roller coaster.

StarfishMom said...

My husband and I have been fostering for 6 years. We ave had 14 placements. 3 of those were long term. Currently, we have an infant baby boy (4 months) who we are hoping to adopt but the current goal is reunification. We also have 4 bio children.

Foster Mama said...

My husband and I have been foster parents for 14 months. We've had 5 placements... four have returned home (one just last week). Tank, placement #5, is set for adoption by non-relative (US!!)... we are so excited to add to our family. We have one bio son who is turning 2. The boys are only 4 months apart :) Yep, we love crazy! We are hoping to get more little ones soon.

-- I totally agree you cannot under estimate the value of having a sense of community. Of people who understand and support you. With our little one who went home last week I have felt amazingly lifted up in this time of great sadness. Thank you!

fosteradoptmama.blogspot.com

Diane said...

I have been a single foster mom for over 17 years. During that time, I have had 17 foster children placed with me in 13 cases (3 sibling groups). I have also provided respite for close to two dozen other children for one to ten days.

I have adopted two of my foster children and am in the process of adopting a third. My first four foster children moved on to non-relative adoptive homes. Two others went on to be adopted by relatives. The other eight returned to a parent, although two later disrupted and the child in each case was eventually adopted by non-relatives.

In addition to my three adopted children, I pick up a former foster daughter every weekend and for most school breaks. She is counted as part of our family. I have been lucky to remain in contact with all but three of my foster children for at least several months after they left my home. I am still in contact with five of those children today.

http://anotherchildtolove.blogspot.com/

FootPrints said...

man. community is so important. there is no way i'd keep doing this if friends, family, and strangers didnt encourage me!

Nicole said...

We re still in the process of being licensed. We took all the classes and just sent in our fingerprints last week. I can't wait to get the call that we are officially licensed :)

http://wfamilylife.blogspot.com/

Unknown said...

Oh, yes. Me, too. Fostering is crazy and scary and exhilarating, and YOU, my friend, have been my "go to girl" when I have no idea what's going on! thank YOU!

Alison said...

My husband and I have fostered for 3.5 months. We started at age 24 with no kids of our own (hopefully will have bio children in the future) and are loving it so far.

We will only foster one baby at a time under the age of ~6 months at time of placement. Since January we have had a (now 10.5 month old) boy who is cute as can be. He will be a long-term placement, but no current plans to adopt him. We are open to adoption, but not looking for it at this time.

I blog about our little man (Boogie) at www.foryoubylove.blogspot.com

Thanks for the great idea!!! I first got into the blog world because I was desperate for info and blogs like yours was the only way to get any about foster care. :)

Deb said...

Love this idea. It's been hard for me to find a lot of foster mom's blogs as we started so I appreciate this list.

http://www.alwaysandforeverfmaily.blogspot.com
I'm Debbie and we adopted our daughter via domestic adoption in 2008. We have an open adoption with her first mom and family. We are feeling God's call to foster very strongly right now and started the training and licensing process in Sept 2010. Our end goal is to adopt but we want to foster for a bit first. Might be a year might be 5 years. We look forward to seeing what and who God brings in to our family.

Beck G. said...

Do I count? My parents have been fostering for almost 4 years, and we have had 5 kids, and hoping to adopt 2 of them :)

Michelle said...

What a great thing you are doing! Here is our info:
We started fostering in July 2009 when we recieved our first placement, a 7 week old baby girl. We have now been chosen to adopt her over the relatives that were interested and she is now legally free. We also have another baby who came to us as a newborn in March of 2010. She is a foster/adopt placement, and we hope to adopt her as well. Thank you for creating this resource for others!

aka. Mimi said...

This is a fantastic idea! I tend to blog stalk other foster parents' followers to see if they foster too. :-) Count me in!

I'm curious to see if there are any other SINGLE foster parents out there who blog. I've only come across two or three others besides myself, and I'd love to hear from more. Doing this on your own brings a whole other "craziness" to the already insane world of Foster/Adopt Land.

Plexus Prosperity Pipeline said...

I'm a single foster parent, actively fostering for 1 month :-). I have a sibling group of three precious girls right now. Who knows for how long.


http://readysetfoster.blogspot.com/