With so many children living in foster care, foster care adoption is one path that parents can take to make a difference in the lives of children.
Just ask Connie and David West — two former foster parents behind an incredible foster-to-adopt story.
To help show the impact of fostering on children in care (and parents, too!), let’s look at Connie and David’s story in detail.
Connie and David are former foster parents who've adopted nine children with medically complex needs.
Medically fragile foster care helps children living with many different conditions, including autism and various physical disabilities.
For Connie and David, it was a simple motivation — their first biological child was born with autism and a seizure disorder, having experienced many traumatic events along the way.
When their child went to kindergarten, Connie went to work at the school, which was a school for children living with different disabilities. There, she met 3-year-old Jesse, a child who was deaf and blind.
Connie believed that Jesse needed love and care — two things that she believed he was not getting at the time.
“Every child deserves a family. They don’t deserve to live in a group home where people come in around the clock to take care of you, and nobody knows from shift to shift whether you’re happy or sad or don’t feel good,” Connie said.
Children in care, no matter how much trauma they’ve gone through, have so much love to give.
For Connie, it’s seeing them do something that doctors say they might never be able to do. It goes to show the work that both a child in care and their parents put in.
David feels rewarded by the entire experience — it’s a learning process for both parent and child. It may take a little while for a foster parent and a child in care to click, but when they do, it’s a rewarding feeling.
For example, David and Connie’s child, Reg, has gone through tragic events in his life. However, he has one of the biggest personalities you’ll ever have the pleasure of experiencing — it’s all about giving it time. The first time he ever called David “dad” was a truly heartwarming moment.
The West family at home.
One of the most important parts of this foster-to-adoption story is to inspire future parents.
Connie truly believes that the rewards and joys of foster parenting are just as impactful on a foster parent as they are on a child in care. All of the things they accomplish and the challenges they overcome make everything worth it.
David also adds that you’ll always be supported along the way — anything you need can be handled by support services provided by Mentor Foster Care, a part of Sevita’s companies.
“You’ll be surprised — once you learn the child in care, then it’s a cakewalk from there,” David adds.
With help from Mentor Foster Care, you can make a difference in the lives of children in care — just like Connie and David.
Discover more about how you can become a foster parent and leave your mark on children in need!