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Foster Care Month 2020 Stories – Come Together

05/18/2020

Katie started using methamphetamines about eight years ago when her grandmother passed away and her mother kicked her out of her home. “Things got pretty dark,” she remembered, “and the drug use got worse. I was a mess, and my kids were placed in care. Because of this, there was a point they didn’t know who I was, and as an addict, I felt hopeless and the hopelessness made me use even more.”

 

Katie had just about given up hope for getting her sons back when she met the boys’ foster parents, Jane and Hank. “Jane told me, ‘I can give the boys a lot of things, but I can’t be their biological mom.’ That’s when I knew I had to fight, and I started treatment,” Katie recalled. “Jane and Hank invited me to attend their church. I was scared at first that they would judge me, but they welcomed me, and I kept going. I put my faith in God and got baptized a year ago in February.”

 

Jane and Hank’s church is active in foster care and provided a community of support for Katie and her sons. “All of our foster families got to know her and supported her,” says Jane. “We grew in relationship in such a great way that we moved 30 miles to be a part of Katie’s day-to-day life. Now we live five minutes away so that we can be there to support her and just be family.”

 

Katie is now on a path to success. “I got a job, and for the first time, I am actually stable. I’m making a little progress, but a little over a year ago I was on the street. If I keep going, I have a chance to become a manager.”

 

Today, Katie’s boys are back with her, and Jane and Hank stay connected. “They are such a big part of my life and continue to support me and the boys,” says Katie. “I don’t know what I’d do without them.” Even better, her boys know who Katie is. “I didn’t have hope before,” Katie explained. “Now I have hope, and both of my sons are home. When they call me mommy, sometimes I cry because there was a time that might not have happened. It’s the best feeling to get to be their mom, like I should have been.”

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