Foster Care Awareness Month

May is National Foster Care Awareness Month. My parents did foster care as I was growing up, and thanks to Facebook - I can still stay in touch with some of my foster brothers and sisters. My sister and brother-in-law did foster care for a time and I have friends that do foster care and friends who are social workers. I also have 5 siblings that were adopted out of foster care! As you can tell, foster care is VERY close to my heart.
The families that do foster care are amazing people. Yes, they get paid, but lets be honest, it is not much. These children in foster care are children that need love, a home, a place to feel safe, something that all children need, but due to circumstances these children cannot get it from their parents at this time. A lot of time there is healing and extra love that is needed for these kids, which can take a lot of work and time on the foster parent(s)/family. So to foster families, parents and social workers out there THANK YOU! You are amazing, by opening your home and loving another you are changing their world for the better.
I have heard people use "foster kid" in a mean way - meaning that they are less than other kids and because they are "foster kids" they must be bad kids. It is so sad to me, because they are KIDS, just like my kids and your kids. They have the whole world at their finger tips, they just need love and guidance to get thru it - just like all of us.
My first experience with foster care as an adult, was when my sister and brother-in-law got their first placement. They had 2 brothers (I think 4 and 6 yrs old) move in, they were the cutest, most fun boys (the oldest did have some anger issues). I went to meet these boys and fell in love almost immediately! My nephew was only about 9 months old, so the only toys in the house were baby toys. I noticed that the boys only had a few clothes and not much to speak of for toys. I dragged Derek to the store and loaded up a cart with as many things that I thought little boys would like - games, balls, toys. (I say loaded up a cart, but lets be honest, I didn't have much of a budget for random toy buying :-) ) When we brought the toys over the next day and stayed to play soccer, there was such a feeling of joy from these boys that these were THEIR toys.  It hit me fairly hard, I always had toys growing up and never noticed that need when we had a new foster brother or sister move in. These kids just wanted something to be THEIRS.
All that being said, with this month being Foster Care Awareness Month, I am dedicating this month to all things kids! :) And I wanted to use my little platform here to say, if you have a heart for kids, think about how you could get involved, as a foster parent, a mentor, or a friend to a foster child or family. And if you have toys or clothes that are not needed in your home, but are still good, donate them! Locally in Michigan we have a great thing called the Foster Care Closet, they collect donations and give them to foster families/kids! http://www.fosterclosetofmichigan.org/  And I am sure there are others like it all around the country. Also, say a prayer for the families with children in foster care, the families who do foster care and the children who are in foster care.
Sorry no design pictures today, but stay tuned for some fun kid's design!
Thanks for stopping by!
Megan