Our Amazing Foster Families

As part of our series of 'everything you every wanted to know about...' posts (so far we've covered names and adoption), we thought it would be fun to address the topic of foster families.

Why does New Day Foster Home send some children to live in foster families?

No institution is a substitute for a family of one's own.  While a forever family is what every child truly needs, we believe that a caring foster family is the ideal place for them to grow up while they wait for adoption.  Foster families give the children the opportunity to experience the love of a family.  A practical advantage of moving children out of the Foster Home is that it frees up beds so that we can take in more children with serious medical needs.

How do you chose which children are going to move out to live with foster families?

We wait until a child no longer needs daily medical care.  Foster parents bring the children back to New Day for check-ups, therapy and preschool.

How do you help children make the move from the Foster Home to a foster family?

Once the decision has been made that a child will be going to live with a particular foster family, the foster mama will spend a week getting to know the child here during the daytime. That way, when the day comes for them to go to their new home, they will be going with someone that they already know.

Who are the foster parents?  How are they supervised?

Most of our foster parents are older, retired couples who have the time and patience to provide the one-on-one attention our children need to thrive.  We employ a full-time 'foster family manager'. Wangshu is the gentleman that you see in the Facebook pictures 'handing over' a child to their new foster parents, and he does a great job providing training and supervision.  You can see pictures of all our foster parents here.

Isn't it hard on the child (and the foster parents) when the children leave to be adopted?

Last year we published a post about attachment;

"These children know how to attach to someone.  They know how to trust and this is the best gift that we could ever give them."

Foster families teach the children about what it means to be part of a family, which is such an important lesson to start to learn.

Yes, it is hard on the foster parents when their precious charges leave.  They grieve and they miss them.  Usually though, they take in another child, and continue to pour their love into a new little life.

You can read the perspective of a foster mama here, and we think that you will agree that our foster families are amazing.