Kris’ Corner-From the Trenches: What I wish I’d Known part 7

I  touched on this a little bit already but want to emphasize this particular point: you need to be flexible when you’re a foster parent. This is always true at the initial placement, but this need for flexibility WILL, most likely, run the entire course of the case....

Kris’ Corner-Kids From Hard Places at Summer Camp

You guys…I realized that I need to pause in the middle of the series about “What I Wish I Knew” to share a little bit about what’s been going on in our lives and encourage those of you who may be struggling with the idea of letting a kid from hard places attend a...

Kris’ Corner- From the Trenches: What I wish I’d know part 5

I’m going to hit you with a quote from a foster parent parent right out of the gate this time: “Accepting help doesn’t mean that you can’t do this.”  You guys…I’ve said this before and I will say it again. You cannot be a foster parent in a silo.  Well to be fair…you...

Kris’ Corner-From the Trenches: What I wish I’d Known part 4

It will surely come as no surprise that when you become a foster parent, your time ends up being split even more than ever. And so, you have to be careful in guarding your own time and the time of your family; to assist with that, you’ll need to set (or learn to set)...

Kris’ Corner-From the Trenches: What I Wish I’d Known part 3

For Part 3 of “What I Wish I’d Known” is one foster parent’s statement: Don’t have high expectations in the areas of DCS parental standards, biological parents’ behaviors, visit supervisors/transporters communication…ever! Keeping low expectations in these areas...

Kris’ Corner-From the Trenches: What I Wish I’d Known part 2

Every single person who has been a licensed foster parent has expectations of some sort. It might be the expectation of a placement being adopted, or the expectation of fostering teens, or taking sibling groups, or being “habitual foster parents” (meaning you have a...

Kris’ Corner- From the Trenches: What I Wish I’d Known part 1

I wanted to take the next few weeks and do a short little series of posts called “From the Trenches: What I Wish I’d Known”. To garner my information, I surveyed a pool of foster parents and asked them what things they wish they would have known prior to fostering....

Kris’ Corner-Vacations with Your Foster Child

In honor of National Foster Care Month and a year when vacations can actually happen, I thought revisiting “Vacations with Your Foster Child” was appropriate. One thing I want to clarify before I launch in: when you have a kiddo from foster care, they will have...

Kris’ Corner – Navigating Mother’s Day with Biological Moms

Mother’s Day. It gets me every year … since our son came to live with us. I wish I could say it gets easier; but, honestly the opposite is true. I think about his birth mom more on Mother’s Day than any other time. I try to put myself in her shoes and imagine what...