Introduction to the 10 Foster Care Tips to Effective Fostering

Starting on the foster journey? Welcome.

January 22, 2015, is a date that I will remember for a long time.

It is the date we received our first foster placement. To me, it feels a little like the date that I gave birth as a surrogate. At 7:30 pm, we welcomed into our home and into our hearts twin eight-month-olds. We didn’t think we can handle twins but with God’s grace and lots of help from our friends, we thrived as a family!

Our three bio kids were ages five and three when we decided to become a foster family. Overnight, we became parents of five kids five and under! We had the privilege of loving them for a period of time until they were reunified with their mom. Although they left our home, they have not left our hearts. We have been really fortunate to maintain our relationship with them. 

Since then, we have had three other placements. In our three years of beginning this journey of fostering, six precious children have come and gone. Each placement has been unique with many opportunities to grow and learn about me, our family, our foster kids and their families, and the foster care system.

Here, you will find 10 Foster CareTips to help your fostering journey be a successful one. Each tip will be a separate blog post so that you can get some real stories and examples of how these tips can be used to help you on your journey. 

Check back here for the updated link. Or you can subscribe to this blog for our monthly newsletter. In it, I always include the newest posts for you to enjoy.

 

Ten Foster Care Tips for Effective Fostering:

1. Know thyself – limitations and capacity
2. Get comfortable with ambiguity and ask for clarity
3. How to get and keep the support you need in fostering
4. You are an advocate, not just a foster parent
5. How to build a strong relationship with social workers and biological parents
6. Be ready to have your flexibility and adaptability tested
7. Work hard on establishing clear structure and routines
8. Find ways to bond with your foster child
9. Have a realistic expectation: fostering is and will be hard.
10. Be renewed each day.