FOSTER CARE BY TIP WOLFE

FOSTER CARE Fostering- a child raised by someone who is not its natural or adoptive parent; nonpermanent adoption In the City of Richmond, there are two major agencies that foster parents foster through, Bethany Foster Care Services and Children’s Home Society. (Each of these agencies are also adoption agencies.) Fostering generally involves a family partially adopting a child until it is placed into a new home. Fostering is necessary in the adoption process because it generally takes a really long time to adopt a child. Fostering can also be used as a way to help out a family in need, because they could not be able to support the child at the time. This is a major problem in the whole world, because it stems off of poverty.

SUMMARY Fostering generally involves a family picking up a baby as soon as the guardian loses their custody of the child. The foster family takes the child home and adapts the child to everyday life, and virtually adopts him or her until the adoption paperwork is processed. Once the paperwork is processed for the adoption, the foster family hands over the child to the adoption family.

STATS More than 500,000 children in the USA are currently in foster homes. Overall there are 300,000,00 people in the USA. 73,700,000 of the people in the USA are under the age of eighteen. That means that approximately % of all children in America are in foster care currently. This does not even include the children that have been in foster care, or are waiting for a foster family. Globally, many more children are in need of faster care, but not many countries have foster care systems. 925 million people in the world do not have “enough” food per day so they are technically impoverished. Hundreds of millions more do just barely meet the standards to keep them from being impoverished. That is 13% of the world’s population.

16% of the children in the world are impoverished and in need of a better home.

INTERVIEW For my project I interviewed my mom, Britta Wolfe. She has fostered five babies under two different organizations. She also has two children of her own (including me). She is currently in the process of adopting a baby from Africa.

QUESTION 1 How much time did you spend with each placement (foster baby)? B – We spent anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 weeks with each baby, but I had to work around the clock, adjusting to the babies’ schedule.

QUESTION 2 How did the foster children, affect intimate family traditions? B - It made it harder to execute plans because someone had to be on baby duty, but it made the traditions more special because we had a little baby to celebrate with.

QUESTION 3 Do you generally see your foster child once he or she has been adopted? If so, how often? B - I have only seen one of the foster children and that was only one time. I also receive pictures for almost all of the fostered babies, however I wish that I could spend more time with them.

QUESTION 4 Do you think that the foster children benefit overall from the experience? (Emotionally and Basic Needs) B - Absolutely, the reality of life is that some children do not have parents and are in the middle of adoptions. I also think that it is fine as long as the babies needs are met to its extent. When we have foster children who are not being adopted but just put under partial care for the time being, we are helping the child by giving the parents time to become better parents.

QUESTION 5 Do you think that foster needs are met in the USA? The World? B - No, I think that there is a great need for GOOD foster parents. Many foster parents are not qualified for taking on that amount of responsibility. It is a worldwide problem.

QUESTION 6 How did you get started with fostering? B - I was thinking about adoption, so I did some research, but while I was doing research I became informed about foster care. I then decided that because there is such a need and I was capable of doing it, that it was in a sense my duty to do this as an experienced parent. I am very fortunate that I can stay home and be a mom and that my family loves babies and is very helpful.

QUESTION 7 Do you think that people are aware of this epidemic in the USA? The World? B - I do think people are aware of this, but they just don’t act because it is very hard to take care of a child. Fostering also leaves a negative connotation as an overall experience, because they have heard of only the negative effects. People also have the perception that being foster parents can be dangerous because sometimes children are taken away from their parents and their fear is that parents will become violent, and kidnap their child back.

QUESTION 8 Do you think that foster care could benefit foster parents if they knew about it? B - Yes, it brings them pride and good practice for being an actual parent.

QUESTION 9 What is the most difficult aspect of being a foster parent? B - Saying goodbye is definitely the hardest part because as a foster parent, that child is your child and it becomes a permanent fixture into the family. It is the equivalent of losing a family member.

QUESTION 10 Do you think that fostering enriched your life? B - Yes, it brought five babies into my life which I still care for. It was also an honor in a sense to be their parent. Lastly, it brought my husband and I to the decision to adopt a child from Africa.

CITATIONS Britta Wolfe