Thursday, January 6, 2011

Foster Parenting 2010

This year I have managed to have 12 foster children in my home at different times. The ages have ranged from twenty something days old to 11 years old. I have not been able to take in all of the children that I have been asked to.



I increased my number that I would keep at a time. I had times with three children in my home. It would have been better if I had not had 3 itty bitty ones in my home at the same time. Learned one thing from that experience - 3 carseats will fit in the back of a Prius! Never would have imagined that. The ages of children probably matter more so than the number, but I haven't managed to get a variety of ages that worked well together. 3 babies is way too much for me by myself.



3 were my foster children...

5 were regular respites I took at different times throughout the year...

4 were one time respites for 10 days or less...



This was the first year that I seriously considered adoption, and yes, it was after I got attached to a particular child. The seed had been planted in my head previously, but never seriously considered it because that is a decision that would follow me for the rest of my life.



There have been many lessons learned from every single one of these children, but I still have many more lessons to learn as well.



I have learned that children need very little other than love to be happy! Adults should learn from children and find what things they can do to make themselves happy without having the need to buy so much stuff. My very first two foster children who were Irish twins, a baby and a one year old came to me with very few belongings. I tried to buy them everything. I felt bad that they didn't seem to like any of the toys I got them. I didn't know what I was doing wrong. They loved to play with my 12 packs of diet coke more than anything. I look back when I used to go to my grandma's house and play with all of her canned vegetables and wash cloths that I liked to make all of my relatives and their pets hats out of. I enjoyed that, but no idea of why! I had plenty of toys and things to do.

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