Foster Care/Adoption

Expectations are the downfall of my heart. I try not to have them and to just go with the flow, but sometimes, it's impossible not to have them. Whether it's expectations of what marriage will be like, or what a job will entail; how your friendships will grow, or, in our case, how our family will grow. We have a precocious (almost) three-year-old, and we are foster parents. I am constantly told that we need more good foster families (and we do!) and that there are lots of kids waiting to be adopted (there are!). I expected a house full of kids, always being asked to take more, but that just isn't the case. We have only had a child in...

This holiday season, abused and neglected children need safe, permanent homes more than any other gift. Your voice can help make that gift possible. As you prepare for a holiday season filled with family and friends, Capital Area CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) Association urges you to remember the children in our community who are spending the holidays living in foster care rather than in permanent homes with families of their own. CASA volunteers provide a voice for these children, speaking up for them to help them reach safe, permanent homes and ensure their needs are being met. Capital Area CASA needs volunteers in order to continue providing a volunteer advocate for every child in East Baton Rouge Parish who...

Stay Out of My Uterus When we decided to become foster parents a few years ago we never imagined that the first child placed with us would become available for adoption. We actually really hoped that he wouldn't become available for adoption because that would mean something really terrible happened in his family of origin that prevented them from parenting. We assumed we'd foster several kiddos before having the opportunity to adopt and we were okay with that path to parenthood. But when our little man became available for adoption 2.5 years into his case, we were happy to bring him into our family permanently. What is interesting is that sometimes when people hear our adoption story they make comments about...

  If stories of adoption and fostering in Baton Rouge are of specific interest, there are many great pieces on the website including stories of adoption (here and here), advice on what not to ask an adoptee, and real life insight into what it is like to foster children in Louisiana.  Loving a Child I Have to Share It's midnight. I am sitting on the floor next to the bed of a child who is terrified. We got a call that this child needs a place to stay while her family gets some help, so she's living with us for a while... or forever... or maybe just another night. This child has done nothing wrong, yet her world was flipped upside down. I can not even begin to...

I've written before about some of the things we've experienced as a transracial family in the deep south. I wish I could say that I always responded to these situations with grace, tact and an open mind, but that would be a lie. Sometimes strangers catch me on a bad day, and my response has been little more than a sharp glare and a big sigh of total annoyance. We all have experienced those moments where a stranger says something hurtful, offers their unsolicited advice, or challenges us as parents. What I am learning to embrace in motherhood is the fact that I can't change how other people act, I can only control how I react in these moments. I had an experience...