Foster care: Reasons Fostering a child is so very rewarding
Inside the Foster Care System
In the United States, over four hundred thousand kids are in foster care. These children have yet to be taken care of. They go from home to home but need a proper environment to grow in.
If adoption or foster care is calling your name, there's probably a reason behind that feeling that shouldn't be ignored. Raising foster kids takes faith, courage, strength, and effort, but it is endlessly rewarding.
If you're searching the internet for frequently asked questions about the child welfare system, foster care programs, or becoming an adoptive family, keep reading to discover the rewards of fostering or adoption today.
Do Orphanages Exist?
Firstly, do orphanages still exist? The term orphanages is primarily extinct for technical purposes, with most closing after World War II. They have been replaced by what is now known as the foster care system. Adoption practices and child welfare programs have also replaced orphanages.
Orphanages play a role in overseas or international adoptions, but not within the United States. The most common practices replacing orphanages are private infant adoption agencies, foster care adoption agencies, or adoption through relatives.
They have been replaced due to a need for better child welfare care services. Traditional orphanages could not live up to this new standard.
Reasons to Consider Foster Care
One reason to consider foster care is that these children have been neglected, abused, and turned away. Some birth parents are unable to care for their children for various reasons. Foster children deserve to be treated with empathy, kindness, love, and respect.
Another reason to consider foster is that there aren't enough safe homes for children in the foster care system. You can combat the ongoing maltreatment in the social services system by opening your home and protecting the children.
Traditional foster care allows individuals, couples, and families to provide parental instincts to children needing support and love. This is a selfless, life-changing opportunity for those unable or unwilling to have biological children.
Similarly, those with children of their own could use their well-established parenting skills to benefit foster children. Perhaps you have an empty nest now and miss the lessons and love that come from raising kids.
Benefits of Fostering
Many foster parents encourage others to open their homes and hearts to foster youth because of the fruitful rewards it brings.
If your intentions behind fostering are genuine, then your home will become a loving, safe haven for a child in need. Under any challenging circumstance that fostering will bring, you will lead with love.
You will learn to think before you react and consider the feelings of other people more than yourself. This selflessness that arises from fostering kids translates into other areas of your life, helping you become a more conscious and intentional person.
Leading with love also provides an impactful experience for the kids you're fostering. Even if they end up moving on from your home, their time with you will be remembered fondly.
The fostering journey also proves to be rather challenging. Putting yourself in an uncomfortable, new situation will challenge your ability to adapt. There is constant room for growth and improvement, which can be exhausting but rewarding. Having a foster child to look after also holds you accountable for your responsibilities and actions.
Setting an example means you have to put in the work each day to be a good role model. This kind of accountability is beneficial for people who do not have others to help keep them disciplined.
More Benefits
Another benefit is the possibility of adoption. Some foster parents become permanent parents of their foster children by adopting them. The opportunity to raise kids that you couldn't help but fall in love with is a beautiful experience.
There is also therapeutic foster care (TFC) for children who have more needs than the average child in foster care. Becoming a therapeutic foster parent can be beneficial for anyone with a background in social work or mental health.
You also get the rewarding feeling of making a difference in the world of the children. Emphasizing the difference you can make in the lives of many young children is essential and crucial work.
Becoming a foster parent also gives you a new outlook and life perspective. Catering to someone who has a different set of needs and background from you helps open your mind. Life will become different as your priorities shift.
You benefit the children's lives by providing them with a caring, safe home. This allows you to become more understanding and compassionate while teaching them to learn how to trust.
You'll also learn many lessons involving patience. There will be many times that test you as a person. These challenges will lead you to learn patience and how to extend grace to yourself and others.
Finding a balance between grace, leniency, and discipline may be hard to do. However, the experiences that foster care brings will teach you how to balance this in your life and with your foster kids.
Become a Foster Parent
While there are ups and downs to foster care, it truly is a blessing to make a difference in a child's life. It only takes someone compassionate and caring to be a good foster parent.
Take the leap of faith because life is short, and you only have one life to go after what you want. Fill out Foster VA's inquiry form here to get additional information and take your foster care journey to the next level.