Are you a parent of older children but miss the joy of having a little one pad around your home? Do you long to have babies of your own but are unable? Do you feel a welling up of love in your soul that you want to pour out onto another? Maybe fostering is the right thing for you. Angels Foster Family Network would love to place a foster child who desperately needs a home into yours for you to love, care for, and nurture while their family situation is in flux.

There are innumerable reasons to foster, but here is a brief list of why YOU should do it!

1. You could help a child form lasting attachments. Studies show that children who are able to bond with a caregiver early in their lives go on to have healthier adult relationships. This means they could have a meaningful childhood, lasting friendships and healthy marriages. So many children in the foster care system grow up to have dysfunctional adult lives because they were not shown what it means to live in a functional family. They often end up having children who go into the foster care system themselves. By bonding with a child during that critical time, ages 0 to 3, these kids can learn what it means to love and be loved, thus breaking the terrible cycle of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. Attachment to a caregiver in the earliest years can literally change the trajectory of a child’s life.
2. You have it in you. All that tenderness and all of those mad parenting skills you notice in other adoptive and foster parents—you have that too. It can be emotionally draining at times, frustrating, upsetting, even, but we firmly believe that people who are moved to foster have something special in them—some kind of bold love that the world needs more of. At Angels, we want to help you channel all that love, strength, and empathy into the life of a child who desperately needs it. We will help you fill in the blanks, and we are there for you whenever you need us; we’re only a phone call away.
3. So many people are in your corner, rooting for you. At Angels, we often hear people say, “I could never foster. What if the child has to go back with their parents at the end of all of this?” While that is most often the goal for these kids, the fear you might have when sending a child back home with their biological parents should never trump the fear of that same child not being in a loving home while they are apart from their family. You will feel a sense of loss, but we are here for you. We offer support groups and have events and programs to make the journey smoother, whether you are bringing a child into your home or whether they are leaving it. We want to support you along with this amazing community who love you and want what’s best for you. You have countless people on your side who are excited to walk this path with you. You’re never in this alone.
4. Yes, it’s a calling, but it’s also a choice. It’s a choice to make a profound difference in the life of a child. While we never want to discredit the calling many families feel to become foster parents, we also acknowledge that even those people can sometimes feel lost or confused along the way. That’s why it’s a choice, just like any other relationship is a choice. It is a choice to treat your spouse with tenderness; it is a choice to show your own children kindness; it is a choice to stay in touch with out-of-state friends. Likewise, it is a choice to bring a child into your home when they need it most. You can make a conscious decision to say “YES!” to giving a child a home while they are away from their families. You can choose to be there for a child who might not have had a foster home to go to had you not signed up to be a foster parent.
5. A child needs YOU. You specifically. You can give love and attention to a child in a unique and important way that no one else can. You have a one-of-a-kind life situation that has shaped you into a person who has what it takes to extend loving kindness to a specific child. At Angels, we believe in a little bit of destiny. We believe that the placements we make are not arbitrary. A family has something special in store for that specific child that is placed with them. It was meant to be. A child can benefit greatly from your own experiences and from the distinctive joy that you share within your own community of family and friends. Let a child be loved by you and know what it means to have YOU as their parent!

But just because something is meant to be doesn’t mean that there won’t be some challenges. That’s the beauty of life—it’s difficult and complex and full of joys in the face of tribulation. And we want to be there for you every step of the way. Our model at Angels aims to make the best possible foster experience for the family and the child. We offer so many programs and support as we try to accomplish this goal. We sincerely hope you will consider letting us help you along in this amazing journey of fostering a child who greatly needs you!