I had a great question posted on a post I wrote a few weeks about about the need for foster families. If you ever have a question that you'd like me to answer, feel free to leave it here and I'll do my best!
“My husband and I have been considering foster care but are worried about the impact it will have on our very young children. Do you have resources you’d suggest or ways to start looking into working in foster care for the beginner?”
I completely understand that fear! Our family has had different opportunities over the years to have different children (various ages) a part of our family for short (or long) periods of time…we have had to say "no" more often as our family has grown because we didn't feel we had the capacity to meet that child’s needs while at the same time meeting the needs of our current family.
When we started our foster parent classes, our agency told us that it was vital to know your current family well before fostering. It is important to make sure that you (and everyone in your family) are in a position to expand your role as mother, father, brother, or sister. 3 years ago we were in a position to bring a 4 & 7 year old sibling set into our home, but right now we could not do that. There have been certain teenagers we have let join our family and live with us for a period of time, but we couldn’t say yes to just any teenager. With each choice we have to examine the impact it will have on our family unit, our marriage, and our children. We want to make sure we can disciple each child and teach them, by God’s grace, to fear and love the Lord above all else on this earth. That being said, if you waited until it did not impact your current children at all then you would never take a child into your home. Caring for the orphan will cost all in your family and that is okay...because it will also be life-changing.
What resources would I recommend for a beginner? There are some great books I would recommend for parenting children who are coming from traumatic pasts, but I think those books are more helpful once you have a child already living with you. For a beginner who is leaning toward foster care, but is worried and not sure if they could do it, my BIGGEST suggestion would be to start getting around other foster families and foster kids. You will see some things that scare you and look overwhelming, but you will see MANY more situations that you will think, "we could do that! We could love and meet that child's needs." You could do this through attending a foster care support group, asking to spend time with families in your church who foster or have adopted, or volunteering at a local shelter for children. The more you are around children who need families, the less scary the faceless “foster kid” will be.
I would also suggest attending an orientation class. The orientation class is the "first step" toward becoming a foster class. It is about one hour and is usually done by a foster parent who shares their experience, explains the process, and tells you what to do next. Then, even if you have not decided to foster yet, I would suggest you go a head and take the foster parent classes (a 10 wk, 30 hour class) through a local agency (families in our church have used ChristianFamily Care and AZ Baptist Children's Services and spoken highly of their experiences with those agencies). I think the scariest thing is the unknown. These classes fill you in on ALL the "horror stories" and potential scary things of foster care, but also provide training, resources, and encouragement.
Hope this is a helpful start!
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