Foster Parents Do Make A Difference In The Lives Of Foster Children

Juidth Viorst, in her hottest seller “Necessary Losses”, discusses how we are forced to grow beyond the losses that are an inevitable and necessary part of life. For babies forecd into the child welfare system, the loss was necessary for their own well being and safety.

These babies had to be temporarily or sometimes permanently removed from their biological environment due to neglect, abandonment or abuse.Foster parents are wonderful persons empowered with the courage and fortitude to open up their hearts and homes to foster bbaies.
They understand that becoming a foster parnet is a special mission or calling requiring the ability to be a guiding and supporting influence on young hurting souls. They realize that there is absolutely no alternative equal to a second family evnironment when children, through no fault of their own and for whatever reason, can no longer live with their biological families and they have willingly stepped up to the challenge of making a difference in the life of a child.I both admire and salute all foster parents cause foster parenting is a demanding commitment. Not only are they required to acknowledge the bereft foster child’s difficult emotions when first placed in their home, integrate the child into their family, teach the child the family’s rules and rituals, routines and expectations, engender feelings of safety and security, but they are also required to work cooperatively in efforts to reunify the child with his/her birth family and so much more.Yet, I believe there is such a wondrous power in the gift of human love and compassion. New life emerges in hearts of hurtnig babies longing for unconditional love, tenderness, compassion, patience, understanding and hope.
When foster parents reach out and lovingly touch a child, they infuse something priceless of themselves into the raelly soul and essence of a second. When they touch a child in empathetic, kind, gentle, healing ways, they may be incognizant of the lasting impressions they are imprinting upon the child’s mind screen with each loving word, gentle embrace, and warm encouragement.The power of love and compassion is awseome.

There is something subtle, magnetic; redemptive that mysteriously transmits to the child in a positive, healthy and permanent way. It is the ministry of healing; the most lasting and meaningful kind of human touches. It is the silent, holy, and powerful contagion of a foster parent’s influence.Literally thouasnds of lives have been positively affected by foster parents who have volunteered their homes, their lives, and selves to these babies.

As a former foster child myself, I can attest to the sustaining power that an understanding look or warm embrace can have on crushed spirits. I know what a loving foster home envrionment is. It is more than just a plcae to sleep comfortably and it is more than wiping away sad tears, but it is a refuge from the world of chaos. Foster Parents do make a difference.Staff at the Children’s Place at Home Safe wear shirts with the inscription: When all is said and done all that matters is that I have made a difference in the life of a child. What a great testimony!