As a prospective foster parent in the United States, understanding the foster care system is critical. The following is a brief overview of foster care and statistics within the United States.  As of 2023, there were approximately 400,000 children in foster care across the country.   Every 2 minutes another child enters foster care.  The […]

  Being a foster parent is often described as both a rewarding and life-changing experience.  However, it's just as important to be well-prepared for welcoming foster care kids into your home.   Research and Education Before diving into foster parenting, it’s important to take the time to research and understand the foster care system. While there […]

  Do you have friends who are fostering and you are wondering how you can support them? Or maybe your family member is a foster parent and you are not sure what would be helpful? Perhaps you would like to support children in foster care, but the timing is not right for you to become […]

  From where I sit and from what I have heard, most Christian social workers, case workers, foster parents, and adoptive parents share at least one calling in common: to take up the cause of the fatherless and to look after the orphaned (Isaiah 1:17 and James 1:27). This call, as well as the desire […]

  If you are a foster parent, you have the innate desire to care for others. If you did not have that desire, you would have not have spent months going through several interviews and preparing your home to care for a child that you have never met. It is such a gift to have […]

Fourteen hours… That is the number of training hours that the state required of my husband and me before adopting our first child from foster care. In fourteen hours we learned why children come into care and how that experience may manifest in the behavior of the child. We learned that there is loss, grief, […]

For many people, Christmas is a fun and joyous time, full of eager anticipation for the presents under the tree and the traditions we are so used to.  For children in foster care, however, this time of year can be anxiety-inducing, full of negative memories, and a time of change as you move between homes.  […]

Often, I hear couples talk about how they would like to foster ‘someday’. I was the same way, always wanting to adopt or foster one day. Helping children in hard places is something that is close to the hearts of many, but it feels like such a big life altering step that less end up […]

Many families interested in foster care are often afraid or nervous to foster “older” children because of the horror stories they may have heard about older foster children. The reality though is that most children in foster care are not scary children but instead are scared children and what they need is a loving, supportive […]

  When entering the foster system, social workers won’t have a full picture of the experiences a child may have gone through before removal. They will have heard of enough situations in the home to warrant action being taken, but a scared child will not be an open book. Instead, children are removed and placed […]