Our First Placement Changed Everything

When we first started talking about foster care, we had a hundred questions and a thousand fears. Would we be good enough? Could we handle saying goodbye? What would it mean for our own kids?

We called our local agency and attended an orientation. That night, sitting in a room full of other families with the same nervous energy, something clicked. These weren't super-parents. They were regular people — teachers, truck drivers, retirees — who decided that having room in their home meant having room in their heart.

Our first placement was a sibling group — two kids under five who arrived with a trash bag of clothes and eyes full of uncertainty. The first week was chaos. The first month was hard. But somewhere in the bedtime stories and packed lunches and trips to the park, we stopped being strangers and became a family.

The goal was reunification, and eventually those kids went home. We cried. Our biological kids cried. But we also knew we'd given those children stability at the moment they needed it most — and that their parents had gotten the support they needed to try again.

We went on to foster more children. Some stayed for weeks, some for months, one we adopted. Every single one of them taught us something about resilience, love, and what it really means to show up for someone.

If you're reading this and wondering if you could do it — you can. You don't need a perfect house or a psychology degree. You need patience, love, and a willingness to be uncomfortable sometimes. The system will train you. The kids will teach you. And you'll look back and wonder why you waited so long.