Keeping Foster Care Connections

When my three children were in foster care (’99-’03), there were two other foster children living in the home with them. One of them was a boy a year older than my youngest. We remain friendly with their former foster parents and still see them a couple of times a year. About six months after we finalized their adoption, Pat (their former foster mother) called me to say that the other boy was starting placement with a couple that lived near us. She gave me their phone number and we all started getting together. It was great for the kids because most foster children lose contact with their foster brothers and sisters after one of them gets adopted. As a matter of fact, we now all get together for an annual Christmas get together, with their former foster parents. 🙂

So this couple found out that their son has a sibling still in foster care and decided to adopt him also. They just finalized and had their adoption celebration tonight! I didn’t go because I wasn’t feeling well but my husband and our three kids went and had a great time! The former foster parents were there also. My husband called me a little while ago to say that the judge that finalized our adoption was the same judge that finalized adoption of their new son and that she was there at the party! I asked him to get a picture of her with the kids but he didn’t bring a camera so he borrowed one from one of the guests and they said they would email us the photo. If they do, I’ll post it. 🙂

In 2002, I began to chronicle my adoption journey and created Forever Parents, a supportive online community for adoptive and waiting parents. Over the next year, we grew our support forums to include an adoption shop and a blog.  Forever Parents stayed active, helping thousands of people for over ten years.  I’m in the process of updating and moving all the posts to this blog, in the Forever Parents section. This post was originally published on May 4, 2008.