A foster mom was the only mother a 10 year old boy has known for 8 years of his life. Then in a flash she is no longer is mother. The foster child was raised with the foster mom’s son that he new as a brother. With the tap of the judge’s gavel the life this child knew ended.

The foster mom got the most dreaded call that took a child that she had raised as her own and gave her three days to pack him up. What happened to allowing the child to transition to returning to his biological mother?

The boy was allowed to finish the school year at his old school where his foster mother is a substitute... more

Some agencies use the term “legal risk placement” while others do not. Some people state it is a made up term. I do hear this term used a lot with agencies, caseworkers, foster parents and child welfare.

A "legal risk placement" goal is usually adoption but there is a “risk” that the child will be returned to the biological parents. In cases where this is not the first time the child has come into care, in prior placement(s) the child was reunited with biological parents. After returning to foster care again it may be decided to look for a foster to adopt placement with the plan being adoption. Children that are more apt be to labeled a “legal risk placement” are... more

Foster parents that have been parenting the foster children while they have be in care in most cases will get the first option to adopt the children. In a lot of cases, the foster parents do not necessarily start fostering a child thinking that they will adopt, but as time goes on the child becomes a part of their family.

In foster care, some children just capture your heart from the beginning and we have to wait to see how things play out with the biological parents. When young foster children are placed into a foster family in most cases people get attached pretty quickly.

When we started our "foster to adopt" journey we were looking for school age children to adopt but... more

There are cases that kinship care works perfectly while others it brings a whole host of problems to the table. Every family has different dynamics.

Kinship care can be a less traumatic experience for some foster children. A number of families are able to provide care short-term and in some cases for the whole childhood. One situation I know about more recently is a grandmother who provided care for three of her grandchildren. While her daughter got off drugs and got her life together. Her mother was unclear if her daughter would be able to do what she needed to do for her children. She was willing to provide long term care for her grandchildren if the courts decided that the children... more

You have been thinking about becoming a foster parent but you are not quite sure it is right for your family. Not every person or family is cut out to be foster parents. Understanding what is involved with parenting abuse or neglected children and how much of your time foster care will consume is the first step.

This is a decision that will impact every one in the household. If you have children at home this will probably have the greatest impact on them. It will be a huge adjustment for your children because of your time taken away from them and the behaviors, issues, etc. that most foster children will be dealing with. You can successfully foster parent while raising your own... more

Why does it seem so odd to someone that single fathers can be great foster dads just as well as single mothers? There are men in this world that truly want to be fathers, even single ones, and make wonderful dads.

In Boston, Paul a single foster dad has become the dad to children that have fallen between the cracks and have been pushed away by other foster parents. He takes older children and only long term placements. He wants the children to have a sense of home and a place that they can return too.

He loads up his foster children and takes off for family summer adventures. (Yeah!!!) This... more

We have used alarms with our foster children to ensure the safety of others and to be able to sleep at night. I have been known to use a handful in one room for one child. Some can and will try to find a way around them, so if you have more than a couple one will sound. You cannot be too careful with your own children in possible harm's way. I also place two alarms on my own children’s bedroom door to ensure that at night no one could harm them.

I woke up one night (because I felt someone in our bedroom) low and behold there was our son (That we later learned was schizophrenic and homicidal) standing at the end of my side of the bed. As you can imagine, I was a little freaked out... more

What is heartbreaking is that the ages of the therapeutic foster child is getting younger. I believe that the drug problem of this country is a factor of this. When moms are so high on “meth”, their parenting and children are not a concern. All they can think about is their next fix (how they are going to get it and pay for it). So the children become part of it by living where drugs are being cooked, men having sex with the children to pay for the drugs, watching mom prostitute herself to pay for the drugs (some cases their children have been in the hotel while the act take places their age does not matter).

Most of these children do not know what a real parent is like. In some... more

This is type of foster care that I am licensed in so I do have more knowledge in this area. In this type of foster care, you will be working with medically fragile and emotionally disturbed children. These children probably are not the best fit with parents that do not have parenting experience. Most therapeutic foster care agencies wants a parent that has experience working or parenting trouble teens, emotionally disturbed children or very difficult children. Therapeutic fostering is also called treatment fostering by different people.

These are not children that have experienced some abuse. Most of these children have lived with severe abuse and some have lived this way for years.... more

When you get a call concerning placement for a child or children that have been in another foster home spend sometime getting information. Ask tons of questions and think about it before you make a snap decision. One foster parent might find something unbearable with a foster child, but another foster parent finds is normal for foster care.

It can be hard get to the truth about why they are being moved sometimes. The more questions you ask the better chance you have of piecing together what is going on with this child.

When you are told that the child is being moved because she and the other children are not getting along, this could easily mean that she is being aggressive... more