Embrace the Yes

Guest writer and foster mom, Diane Blake, shares her experience opening their home to adopt and then changing it to foster.

As a foster mom, I have a big heart for kids who are in need.  Our family first began this journey as an adoptive family.  We had already fallen in love with a little boy that we planned to adopt.  We didn't want to put our family through fostering as we knew it would be painful for our biological children to become attached and then to have to say goodbye. 

The one thing that is certain in foster care is that your vision for the journey will be very different from the actual journey.  You have to be flexible and be willing to step outside of your comfort zone. Our adoption didn't work out and we were devastated to say the least.  So as a family, we took that giant step outside of our comfort zone and decided to start fostering. It wasn't always easy or pretty, but we helped a lot of children through some tough transitions. 

Our biological children were loving, accommodating, giving, and resilient.  The pros were outweighing the cons and I could see my children realizing how fortunate they are to have a healthy and happy family unit.  Throughout our foster care journey, we were lucky to open our home to over 80 children in need of a safe and loving place to lay their heads.  Our hearts broke several times as we said goodbye to children who will forever be a part of our family.  But we've also mended and learned so much from these experiences. 

If your family has ever considered fostering or adopting, please remember there are a million reasons to say no, but a child needs you to embrace the opportunity to say yes!!

Diane Blake

USD 263 Teacher