The littlest member of our household likes to dream big. He often dresses like a superhero. We’ll find him near his toy bin, carefully pulling his new Iron Man gloves, elbow and knee pads over his Spiderman costume. It’s painstaking work for preschool fingers to navigate but, in this particular project, he is very patient [...]
Yesterday was World Social Workers Day and I spent it, as I do most other days in the four years we’ve been licensed foster care providers, thinking about how lucky we are to have the team of social workers we do. Foster care will break your heart in a million ways you never saw coming. [...]
The message came midway through a rough morning as we worked to get one of our young charges to school. “I’m parked down the block. Text me if you need me.” And, once again, I am astonished at the level of compassion, professionalism and super human strength Outagamie County foster care social workers possess. I [...]
We have met some incredible people during our journey as foster care providers, men and women who rise to significant challenges every single day, and then wake up the next morning (sometimes from a bedroom floor where they have slept all night) and rise again. I met a very capable, very young woman during my [...]
I remain as amazed today as I was 33 years ago by the extraordinary gift of motherhood. They weren’t perfect, thankfully, because who wants the pressure of raising a perfect child? But, my children’s mistakes stemmed from the chaos of their happy lives -- messy rooms because they were busy and could not be bothered [...]