A little history about me: I am the youngest of 11 children. My mom passed away when I was 6 years old. I’ve never really had anyone to show me how to be a mom, but I guess it just came natural to me. I have 20 nieces and nephews, 3 great nieces, and a host of cousins who I have babysat over the years. I’ve worked in childcare ever since I graduated from High School. I’ve always babysat for different families; I guess I can say I thought I was a natural when it came to taking care of children. Little did I know three children would change my life…
For years, I wanted to be a foster mom. Yet I was always hesitant to start the journey into foster care because I didn’t think a single person like myself could be a foster mom (no spouse, no children). I didn’t think I would qualify, but I did some research, asked around, and made some phone calls anyway. As it turns out, you just have to be at least the age of 21, you can be single or married! I talked to my family about it and I just decided I was going to go for it! At the time, I was rooming with my sister when I decided to get a two-bedroom apartment of my own and start the process.
August of 2016, I called St. Joseph Orphanage and they sent me the schedule and what I needed to start my classes. There were two months of classes and it was a complete emotional roller coaster. Some classes were simple and some were hard to sit through. Hearing the stories about some children that go through foster care just brought tears to my eyes and broke my heart. I mean, I lost my mom when I was young, but I couldn’t imagine being without my family. At that point, I wanted to take every kid in that I could.
Classes continued and I was getting close to the end. I had to make a decision of what sex, race, and age range I wanted to foster. There was never really any question of the matter. I immediately marked African American and Caucasian. Color doesn’t matter to me. Love is love no matter what color you are. As for the ages, I thought maybe I’d do ages four and five. After my classes were over, I had my home study and I was approved for up to four children. I thought, ‘Woah…that’s a lot! Am I ready for this?’ But I was ready and I knew in my heart I could do this. Now it was go time!
