“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said this when he was giving a speech in Montgomery, Alabama in 1957. It is a question that we should still be asking ourselves. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is January 21. In 1994 MLK Day was declared a national day of service in addition to being a federal holiday. In the spirit of Dr. King’s memory, think about ways you can serve your community as a family. Though fos

Foster children’s families may have made some poor choices, but they usually truly love their children and worry about their wellbeing. Like any parent, they want to know who is taking care of their children and how the kids are doing. All three of the families we have gotten to know have thanked us for taking good care of their children and said that meeting us and getting to know us a little bit made them feel a little bit better about their children being in foster care. T

Respite care can be a great support for foster parents, especially treatment foster parents, especially when the kids have a good experience. Because foster kids have experienced abrupt removals from their own home and/or other foster homes, going to a new place may cause a lot of anxiety. Advance planning and conversations can help ease the anxiety and help you have more peace of mind so you can take care of yourself while your kids are in respite care. Foster parents know t

Laundry: one of the unending struggles of parenthood. All parents have pondered the mystery of how such small people can produce so much laundry. Much to my surprise, even something as commonplace laundry can be more challenging for foster families. Most recently, I rediscovered this fact when we were doing respite care for two young boys. I expected to have increased laundry with the increased number of children, but figured I would only have to do a few more loads while the

I always say that anything can happen in foster care, and yet I am still surprised in big and small ways. This week was one of those weeks that brought big surprises. I mentioned in a former post that we had court this week and the Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) trial would begin unless our little guy’s father chose to surrender his parental rights. I fully expected a TPR trial because we were told that the father was not going to agree to surrender his parental rights.

Stranger Danger is a basic concept that parents teach their kids in order to keep them safe. Unfortunately, the concept of stranger danger, like many things, is much more complicated for children in foster care. Not only are foster children taken from everyone familiar and placed in a family with total strangers, they also have a large number of people coming in and out of their lives, many of whom are basically strangers. Our little guy is the friendliest child I have ever m

Last week, our little guy came home from a visit and had explosive gastrointestinal distress (I will spare you the horrifying details) because his father fed him excessive amounts of fruit and juice. This is not the first time he drank so much juice during a visit that he had diarrhea, but it was the most intense reaction he’s had. Unfortunately, I can only report to the caseworker what happened (again) and ask her to try and prevent it from happening again. Our little guy’s

Our little guy loves Daniel Tiger . We don’t let him have much screen time , but it’s the main thing he does watch. In general, I love the show too because it teaches important social and emotional lessons and helps children learn to deal with their feelings in a healthy way. The team behind the show follows the rigorous process Fred Rogers utilized to communicate in a way children could understand and that would be inclusive. Every episode has a little song to help the child

Respite care can be a great way for foster parents to get some time for self-care , but preparing for your children to stay with a stranger can be very stressful. My husband and I currently have two boys staying with us for respite care. Being on this side of respite has taught me a lot about what respite providers need to know. Beyond the basics like medical conditions, allergies, schedule, and your contact information, there are a lot of little things that can help the resp