It is National Foster Care Month! All month long our blog posts will be focused on foster care.
Whether this is your first Mother’s Day or not, Mother’s Day as a foster parent can look and feel a little bit different. Different in that you are celebrating the ability to mother a child but understanding a mother lost her ability to mother that same child. As foster parents how do we honor their biological mother and create a space for your child to share their feelings?
Writing Activity:
Completing a writing activity with your biological and foster children can help them share things they love about their mother. Some of the prompts to utilize could be “My mom makes the best…, My mom and I like to…, My mom is the best at…, My mom makes me feel special by…, My mom is as pretty as…,”
Phone or Video Call:
If your relationship with the biological mother has been established, you can call with the child to celebrate her. You can utilize the writing activity for the child to share what they love about their mother.
Create a Memory Box:
A memory box could be a great activity for your biological children and foster children to do. They can fill it with colorings, drawings, pictures, etc. Items in the memory box can be taken with the child to their next visit and their mother can be encouraged to add items to the memory box.
Making a Photo Book:
Making a photo album or photo book where there are two copies, one for the biological mother and one for the child in your care. Having two copies will allow the mother and child to feel connected to one another. Additionally, creating the album with your child can open communication about their feelings or memories about their mom.
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 - Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.