North Dakota residents choose to take in children for many different reasons. One North Dakota couple first became foster parents in the early 1990s not long after they got married. The woman says she didn’t know whether she could give birth to a child, although they ended up having two biological children. However, they have been foster parents off and on for decades. Like many foster parents, the couple has adopted several of the children whom they have fostered.
The couple’s reason for being foster parents is simple. As the woman says, “We get great satisfaction and joy from knowing that we are providing a loving and caring home for these kids.”
The couple even moved to Kentucky a little over a decade ago to live nearer to one grown foster child and that woman’s young family. She also notes that “I was sick of cold weather” in northeast North Dakota. The foster mom says the couple has continued fostering children in their new home state because “I wasn’t ready for an empty nest…I felt like my life was going to become lonely, sad and boring.”
The woman, a full-time homemaker is the one with the license to be a foster parent. Her husband, who is retired, does not. However, she says she couldn’t do it without him. He shares her belief that giving children a happy childhood is “really quite a deal.”
People who open their homes to children who do not have parents or whose biological parents are not able to care for them can change and even save lives. It’s a big commitment, and an important one. North Dakota family law attorneys can help those who want to foster or adopt children to help ensure that the process goes as smoothly as possible and help minimize the stress for both the parents and, most importantly, for the children.
Source: Effingham Daily News, “Couple provide happy home for foster children” Bill Grimes, May. 31, 2014
