Meet Family Works foster parents Laura and Jeff. They live in the Stevens Point area and have been doing foster care with Family Works for roughly five and a half years.
Getting Started
Prior to getting licensed with Family Works, Laura and Jeff were involved with kinship care for their niece, who they now have guardianship of. This experience allowed them to dip their toes into the foster care system.
Laura previously worked as a CPS social worker and shares that she saw the desperate need for foster parents and wanted to help in any way that she could. They saw the need and knew they had the patience, experience, and capability to work with kiddos that have treatment level needs. Laura shares that she has watched kids bounce from home to home and wanted to be that stable resource for a child or sibling group. Jeff was inspired to become a foster parent to change the trajectory of children’s lives and watch them grow in a safe and stable home environment.
Laura and Jeff share that they enjoy being foster parents because they love to see the successes and wins that a child has when they are in a safe environment with the needed services in place. All wins are wins, no matter how small. Even “learning that they like to read, joining clubs, or finding activities that they enjoy”. Laura and Jeff enjoy seeing kids be successful and realize the full potential they have.
Family Lifestyle
Laura and Jeff have a large family. Their family is unique because their family was put together in several different ways. They have two of their own biological children, their niece that they have guardianship of, and currently have placement of a teenage girl that they are in the process of adopting. They are a very active family and love getting their children involved in sports and other activities. They go to church on Sundays and regularly attend other church activities throughout the week such as youth group.
Laura and Jeff have such a fun home environment and are always on the go. They enjoy being outside, going camping, having family game and/or movie nights, getting ice cream, or going to the local YMCA and doing an activity together such as swimming. They often have family sporting events such as a two-hand touch football game in their yard. They share that they love to show kiddos what life can look like by keeping them involved in activities and doing fun family outings. Another unique thing about this family is that all the kids are musically talented, and each child plays an instrument.
What Keeps them Going?
Laura and Jeff enjoy doing foster care and continue to provide care each year because they want to make a difference. They enjoy being a safe place for children, whether that be a weekend respite visit or long-term placement. They enjoy seeing a child be successful and making process on their goals. They enjoy watching a child worry about “normal kid problems” instead of the other worries that they can often come into care with.
Words of Advice from Laura and Jeff
- Each child is unique, even ones within the same family. Every child has a different story and different experience. You may need to change your ways of parenting to best support them.
- You are going to need a lot of patience and grace. There are so many moving pieces that are out of your control as foster parents. Sometimes things are frustrating, but it is important to believe the best in others.
- It is hard. It is great, but it is hard, especially when you need to rely on the decisions of others. You still need to be that stable person for this kid, even if there are decisions being made that you don’t agree with or like.
Why Family Works?
Laura and Jeff share that they researched several different agencies when they decided to pursue their foster care license and it ultimately boiled down to what support was offered to foster parents. Laura and Jeff enjoy working with Family Works because of the staff support and ongoing training opportunities. Laura shares that she appreciates being in the same area as her social worker so that they are not only physically close, but they can also lean on for support as needed. Laura and Jeff appreciate the monthly case consultations where they can connect with other foster parents and bounce ideas off of others. Case consultations are an additional support with Family Works for foster parents and are a great way for families to build their foster parent support network.
Family Works Social Worker says:
“Laura and Jeff are absolutely amazing foster parents. They are both very loving, kind, and patient parents. They offer a trauma informed lens to their parenting which is great to see in practice. They are calm and comforting, even in times of crisis or stress. One thing that I absolutely love about this family is that Laura and Jeff are such strong advocates. They will always do their best to support every kiddo that comes into their home to the best of their ability. I am so thankful to work with such great foster parents like Laura and Jeff”.
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