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.

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…)