Foster Parenting > Fostering Families

Parents who foster

• create an environment in which positive change and growth can occur
• are patient enough to recognize that parenting is a dance in which one often takes two steps forward and one step back
• are able to accept and parent other people's children
• recognize that fostering is a partnership with an agency, another family, and others
• are willing and able to advocate in the school and in other community groups for foster children
• can live with a system that isn't always perfect
• are open to learning through doing

Children who foster

• are willing to share their parents
• are willing to share their home and space
• can adapt to lifestyle changes
• become aware that not all families are like their own
• learn to deal with change and loss
• can live with knowing that their efforts and contribution to fostering often gets overlooked

Families who foster

• are comfortable with the idea of being in the public eye
• are flexible and willing to accept change on a daily basis
• enjoy making a difference in a child's life
• can celebrate small victories and gains
• may never receive their well-deserved recognition or may see it years later
• are ambassadors for fostering by the way they live each day of their lives