May 19, 2015
By: Marrianne McMullen, ACF Deputy Assistant Secretary for External Affairs
I was 26 and single when I became a foster parent.
In 1985, I met a family of six sisters in the small Ohio town where I was living. Aged 5 to 12, they were living with their parents in a small house just up the street; their grandparents lived in a trailer behind the house.
Their needs were many, and our relationship started with providing school shoes, washing coats, mending things, and just having fun together on weekends. Then their parents got arrested, put their modest house up for bail, and left town–leaving the children with their grandparents.
That’s when I told the grandparents I would get my foster care license so that I could help out when needed, particularly as the girls became teenagers. It wasn’t long before the girls started living with me, one or two at a time, over the next 12 years. Some were formal foster care arrangements, others, when they were over 18, weren’t. Some never lived with me, but they all became my family.
These were kids who needed a chance, and who happened to have parents who weren’t the ones to give them that chance. That’s where the rest of us come in.
READ MORE: Their Chance, Your FamilyIn 1985, I met a family of six sisters in the small Ohio town where I was living. Aged 5 to 12, they were living with their parents in a small house just up the street; their grandparents lived in a trailer behind the house.
Their needs were many, and our relationship started with providing school shoes, washing coats, mending things, and just having fun together on weekends. Then their parents got arrested, put their modest house up for bail, and left town–leaving the children with their grandparents.
That’s when I told the grandparents I would get my foster care license so that I could help out when needed, particularly as the girls became teenagers. It wasn’t long before the girls started living with me, one or two at a time, over the next 12 years. Some were formal foster care arrangements, others, when they were over 18, weren’t. Some never lived with me, but they all became my family.
These were kids who needed a chance, and who happened to have parents who weren’t the ones to give them that chance. That’s where the rest of us come in.
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