“We nervously said yes. The next day, these two little brothers were dropped off at our house.”

‘Can you open your home to two little boys?’ They taught us more than we could ever teach them.’: Foster mom shares journey, ‘We wouldn’t trade a minute’

‘We were warned, ‘She’ll only sleep on top of you in bed.’ She was terrified of books and baths.’: Mom candidly shares challenges of foster care, ‘I’m right where I want to be’
“I felt judged by medical professionals. They thought it was my fault she hadn’t seen a doctor yet in her 2 years of life. We’re all she has.”

‘There are days I hide behind the bathroom door and cry. It never gets easier.’: Foster mom shares ways to support foster families
“The truth is there’s never a good time to become a foster parent, because there’s never a good time to sign up to have your heart broken.”

‘I was life-flighted. I had a tube down my throat I didn’t want, so I took it out.’: Woman shares trauma after weight-loss surgery
“I woke up in a white room by myself. ‘A few minutes later, you’d be dead.’ I looked down at my stomach and was very confused about the ladder-like line of staples holding my entire abdomen together.”

‘Holy crap, babe.’ I looked down to the word ‘pregnant,’ clear as day. How could I care for a baby AND be a foster mom?’: Foster parents surprised by pregnancy after infertility battle
“What if it’s harder than we thought? What if we’re taking on more than we’re equipped for? We couldn’t let go of the fact we had not one, but two empty bedrooms. While we slept safe and sound in our comfortable bed each night, there were hundreds of displaced children in our area in need of a loving home.”

‘Are you willing to take in two more boys?’ They were filthy, skeletal. ‘We encourage you to bathe them immediately.’: Mom shares the beauty and heartbreak of foster care
“Along the way, many people have asked, ‘Why keep doing this? It’s painful.’ They need to know they are enough. They need to know they are worthy of safety and love. For every child we have loved and lost, we would do it all over again, in a heartbeat.”

‘Why does he act like that?’ My home was a war zone. But I wouldn’t take back that time even if I could.’: Woman shares advice to new foster parents, ‘Find your people’
“That birth mother I met at the DHHS office? She and I could have easily traded places. I’d be a fool to believe I was called to love my children, and not their parents.”

‘I suddenly blurted out, ‘Boys, you know we’re a team, right?’ It’s impossible to know what lies ahead.’: Family shares foster care journey, ‘There’s NOTHING we can’t handle together’
“What if we’re biting off more than we can chew? What if my children resent us for it later? Holding our breath, we wait.”

‘I sat in a hospital room as we mourned her mother’s last breaths. I held her trembling siblings.’: Couple fosters 9 kids, adopts 1, ‘Their arms around your neck are worth it’
“I rocked this child to sleep for 13 months. She knew me as her mom. We had NO idea what to expect for the future.”

‘Let me tell it STRAIGHT, there’s days I feel like I’m babysitting someone else’s kids.’: Foster mom details journey, ‘We’ve learned to love them as our own’
“They’d been with 4 different families in the last 6 months. The kids needed someone who could teach them to be a friend, to love others, to be kind, and to just be good human beings.”