May is National Foster Care Month. This is a great time to recognize and honor the many families that open their homes and make a huge difference in the lives of children. These families take in these children while their parents are working on various issues or while the state works to terminate the parent’s custody so that these children can be adopted. National Foster Care Month is also a great time to recognize and honor all the relative caregivers, the social workers, the mentors, and the volunteers that work with these children and provide safety and care for them. Everyone involved play a vital role in helping the child, youth, and the families that are in crisis to heal.

Foster families provide not only safety but also nurturing care, assistance with schooling, medical care, emotional support, physiological support, and stability that these children so desperately need. These families help these children and youths to see that there is hope and many opportunities for them in life. They teach them to make wise choices in their lives. They teach them what a healthy thriving family looks like. In addition, they teach these children and youths that they are valuable and worth fighting for.

Foster families are in great demand in all states. It takes commitment and determination, but the payoff is the knowledge that they have made a difference in the lives of these children and youths. They care for these children until it is safe for them to return to their homes or until they are adopted.

According to the Texas Child Protective Services (CPS) annual report for 2007 the number of children and youth in foster care for 2006 was 34,275 and for 2007 the number of children and youth in foster care was 33,615. This is an alarming number of children and the need for foster families is always high. Foster parents receive reimbursements for the cost of caring for these children. CPS sets up all appointments for the medical, dental, and various therapies that these children need. The state pays for all charges.

Take the time to recognize and honor all of these families, volunteers, and state workers that care for these children and youths.

Becoming a foster parent can be an exciting adventure. The majority of potential foster parents have glamorized the role, that is, up until they begin going through the training required.

The first role of foster parents is to protect and nurture any child placed within their home. They will become part of a professional team that’s one goal is protecting the child until his or her future is determined.

The training that is required helps the parents to understand and be aware of the mandate, structure, and relevant regulations of Child Protective Services (CPS). Training teaches about the state laws that influence the process of child placement, permanency of placing and the laws that define child abuse and neglect. Foster parents should have the ability and willingness to work with the birth parents while the child is in their home. The ability to be objective and professional at all times is a huge asset to any foster parent. Instead of being judgmental, the foster parents are there to provide support and comfort for the child above all else. Foster parents have a critical role in helping to achieve permanence and stability for children.

The second goal of foster parents is to meet the child’s developmental needs. Foster parents can meet the child’s developmental needs by building self-esteem, providing positive guidance, supporting cultural and spiritual identity, and using appropriate discipline. Supporting educational/intellectual growth and encouraging positive social relationships also helps the child’s developmental needs.

Foster parents can help children develop attachments by constantly understanding and meeting the child’s needs. Also, by helping the child express their feelings and demonstrating that they understand. Helping the child feel good about themselves and helping the child to relax and have fun aids in the development of attachments.

Foster parents need to understand some of the factors that delay or impede child growth and development. Some of the factors are:

• Physical neglect and/or abuse
• Emotional abuse and neglect
• Prenatal factors
• Sexual abuse
• Accidents and trauma

It is very important for the foster parents to understand how to address emotional and developmental delays. This is where training to become a foster parent plays a big role.

Society’s view of the foster care system, for the most part, is negative. The media is all too quick to report on those foster care families that for one reason or another hurt the children, neglect them and sometimes kill them. There are those foster care families that will take in a large number of children, in order to support themselves. They take the assistance the state provides for the children, and will use it for their own monthly bills and selfish needs. This is likely to leave the children in worse conditions than they came from.

The media reports on these families fail to show the huge number of great foster care families that give well beyond what is asked or required of them. You have to remember, these children come into the foster care system because they have been neglected and abused.

It is no small task to take these children, many of whom have behavioral problems, into their homes. Sometimes bringing these children into their homes puts their own family are risk. They must take care of emotionally and sometimes physically fragile children. They must also deal with the families that these children come from if the child tells them where they are currently residing. These children need all the love, support, guidance and sometimes medical care that they can get. (more…)

In Texas, and across the country, there is a great need for more foster care families to care for the growing number of children in the foster care system. It may seem intimidating to go through the process, but the benefits for you and the child are immeasurable. Below are some of the things you need to know if you are interested in becoming a foster parent in Texas.

The foster care parent need not be married, they can be single. However, they must also meet other requirements, such as being at least 21 years old, a responsible mature adult and financially stable.

There are so many children in the foster care system in the state of Texas and more and more foster care families are needed every day. Once the decision is made to become a foster care parent an application is to be filled out and the prospective foster care parents are asked to provide proof of marriage and/or divorce, share their personal backgrounds and lifestyles, and provide relative and non-relative references on their behalf.

The applicant(s) must also agree to a home study where a staff member from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services comes to their home and visits with them and all other household members. This enables the staff to know if these are appropriate living situations for the foster children placed in their homes.

The state’s main concern is the safety of the children placed in foster homes. All adults in the prospective home must complete an abuse and/or neglect check along with a complete criminal history background check. The prospective foster parents need to attend free training also to learn about issues of neglected and abused children, CPR/First Aid Certification and agree to 20 hours or more of continuing education every year. The training they receive will assist them with the various issues that will arise once a foster child is placed in their home.

Foster parents must agree to a nonphysical discipline policy in their homes at all times. They must also allow no more than six children in the home at one time, and this does include their own children. They also must provide adequate sleeping space for each child.

All pets residing in the home must also have all vaccinations. Foster care parents are also required to submit to health, fire, and safety inspections of their homes on a regular basis. The safety and health of the children is always the utmost concern for the state when they place these children in foster homes. The state agency is charged with making sure that the children are placed in very competent, trained and loving hands.

Foster care parents are instrumental in the nurturing and loving care of these children who are placed in their homes. They become the child’s advocate in their communities and their schools. They protect and care for these children as if they were their own. This means taking care to see that these children receive proper medical care, have help adjusting to life’s many situations and providing these children a positive role model that will helps them later on in life.

Before being placed in a foster home most of these children have never known a positive, healthy, loving home structure, with rules and guidelines for living a productive life. Foster homes play a very big part in educating these children about the many important life lessons, social etiquette, social graces and opportunities that are available to them.

These children often arrive in foster homes with no hope and no desire to strive to be better. Without hope, they are doomed. The foster families, that so loving take in these children, teach them that there is hope and there are better solutions to life’s problems than they currently have available. These foster care homes teach them life skills that they can use throughout their lives.

My husband and I became Transitional Care Parents for a local non-profit adoption center here in Fort Worth, Texas on Jan. 1, 2005. Transitional Care Parents are certified the same as foster care parents for the state of Texas. We hold the same license as those of foster care parents for the state.

We, and other foster care parents, are thoroughly investigated by the state. Criminal background checks, fingerprinting, health checks, immunizations, etc. are required by the state in order to obtain state licensing.

The myth that any person can be a foster parent if they desire, is wrong. The truth is, any person requesting a license as a foster care parent must undergo thorough background checks, medical evaluations, personal biographies, home studies, mental health checks, first aid and CPR classes, childhood care classes, abuse and child neglect classes, etc. All foster care parents in the state of Texas have gone through extensive testing, classes and certification in order to hold a foster care license.

The state of Texas always has the best interest of the child at heart when they license foster care parents/transitional care parents. Those licensed as foster care parents have gone through extensive testing, background checks, and teaching. No child is placed in a home unless it is completely safe and the parents are well educated in the various aspects of the foster care system and the emotional and possible physical needs that these children come with.

Any child placed in the foster care system comes with emotional issues that need to be addressed. The best thing about foster care is that this is a safe place for these children to residue so that medical and psychological professionals address issues. These are homes that allow these children to receive loving care and protection, as their parents are educated, rehabilitated or the parent’s rights are terminated.

Once the parent’s rights are terminated, these children are ready for adoption. Some couples are interested in adopting only newborns. There are vast amounts of available children ready for adoption through the state’s foster care system. These children desperately need nurturing, loving, accepting families. These children are in need of love and acceptance, especially since life has dealt them a tough hand.

I have seen in the past that these children make wonderful additions to families because they come with the understanding that families are important and they take nothing for granted. They appreciate all the love that they receive from their adopted families and they make wonderful additions to these families. They come with a wonderful sense of adventure and an overwhelming need to please.

They have this amazing ability to open the family’s eyes to the less fortunate in our societies. They have the ability to show families how blessed they are and how there are so many children out there that believe there is no hope. The families that adopt these children are blessed beyond measure and most families go on to adopt additional children. The strongest advocates for foster care and adoption are those that have adopted through the state’s foster care system. They are all to aware of its importance and its saving grace for many of the children that have been abused, neglected, and deserted by dysfunctional families.

Some couples have this idea of the perfect newborn to add to their family. Many children are available for adoption through the state’s foster care system. These children may not be newborn they are just as precious and full of joy and potential. They come with an overwhelming need to please and to bring joy to the family that adopts them. To overlook these children is to miss the blessings that each one of them can bring to your family. Every child is valuable and unique.