May is Foster Parent appreciation month! We want to start off the month by saying thank you to all the foster parents around the world that give up so much each day so that a child can have a safe place.
Thank you for the courage to welcome a child/teenager into your home.
Thank you for being willing to join in on sporting events, late night study sessions, and friend hangouts.
Thank you for allowing your values and world views to be challenged by a young person coming from a very different place in life than your own.
Thank you for being there to support a child’s adoptive family or birth family through the transition.
Thank you for taking time to understand the effects of trauma on child/teenager.
Thank you for making every effort you can to help your foster child heal, even if that means long drives to therapy, extra schooling, untraditional parenting, and/or even just being there.
Thank you for documenting life experiences for children during the time they are with you through pictures and letters.
Thank you for taking in children and youth, at all hours of the night, with a lot of uncertainty.
Thank you for advocating for your foster child with schools, doctors, social workers, probation officers, even neighbors.
Thank you for attending many meetings with your child’s social worker and allowing so many individuals into your personal life to make sure the child in your care is safe.
Thank you for working to transition and stay connected to your foster children after they have left your home to make sure they are okay.
Thank you for caring even when it is hard and not always rewarding.
Thank you for being one of the most significant, lifelong influences in the life of a foster child or youth.
To all the amazing foster parents around the work, we want to say THANK YOU!!!