The Imperfect Time to Say Yes

When is the perfect time to become foster parents? For years, the Scott family thought foster care was something they didn’t have enough time or money to pursue. So, they pushed the idea aside and poured themselves into raising their five biological children. That is until Raquel met Jenny.

Jenny was 9 years old, on her fourth foster home, and on the verge of being moved again. Raquel babysat Jenny and couldn’t bear the thought of her bouncing from home to home. Suddenly, the things that stopped them before didn’t seem as important anymore. It wasn’t the perfect time and they still didn’t have enough money, but all of that paled in comparison to the love they wanted to give this child. Raquel made some calls and through a thin line of kinship, they became kinship providers for her while completing their foster care license through Focus on Youth.

That was Jenny’s last move. It was also when the real work of love began. “My new daughter and I had a lot of adjusting and counseling for us to fit,” explains Raquel. “My daughter had been mistreated, had no social skills, and is on the spectrum, so I spent a lot of time working with her to teach her touch, trust, and that she was loved.” They know kids in foster care come from hard places and as foster parents, they must understand the way the child’s trauma forms them in order to build the bridge that will lead them toward recovery.

Three years later, they are finalizing her adoption and caring for four other foster children. “When I got married 30 years ago, I wanted 10 kids,” Raquel says. “Now, at 50, we have started all over, have 10 kids between our biological children and foster children with ages ranging from 1 to 33, and couldn’t be happier!”

“I can tell you it’s rewarding, fun, always an adventure, hard, sometimes heartbreaking, but they are always better when you are together,” she says. She strongly advises anyone thinking about foster care to rely on the resources Focus on Youth has available. Between the support Focus provides and the incredibly supportive community of foster parents to lean on, new foster parents are given the best chance to succeed.

Raquel adds, “I never knew I needed to foster, but God decided his plan for us was to help mold sometimes broken kiddos into love and strength.”