Becoming a foster family is an adjustment for everyone in the family especially your birth children. When we started the journey to fostering, we started having conversations with our girls; especially our oldest. We talked about the kids that would come into our home. We shared things that she would think was cool from our training and the process. We had her help with things involved in our licensing that were age appropriate like walking through our evacuation plan. We read books related to fostering and prayed for the kids that would come into our family. It was still a shock when we actually added a child to our home. Our oldest insisted that we kick our foster kiddo out of our home. She did not understand why we had to have him for so long and would get angry when we gave him needed attention. It helped for us to take her on special dates and give her our undivided attention sporadically through the day. It took a few weeks before we got our feet underneath us and it felt more normal. I remember the day my kiddo told me she was glad to have a foster brother. My advice is find special one-on-one time with your kids as they adjust to the change and be willing to go with the flow as much as possible.

 

Thank you for your great question! If you have questions, send them to #youaskedfa or Kim@fosteraz.com