As you walk into the home of Jessica and Joseph, you can’t help but notice the enormous play area they’ve set up in the family room. It’s at least 100 enclosed square feet with brightly colored toys, climbing equipment, crawl tubes, and a tool station. Outside there’s a water table shaped like a pirate ship.
Not every family who fosters with Angels Foster Family Network needs to have this kind of setup. But in this case, it’s helpful because their placement, a toddler they call “Bubba,” has non-stop energy, always curiously buzzing about, ready to explore and play. “We need to switch out the toys because he gets bored,” says Joseph, smiling as he watches Bubba ride a toy tiger across the room.
The couple has a business together and says that when Bubba visits their facility, he makes friends with everyone from the office workers to the visiting delivery people. During their nightly bicycle ride around their Fletcher Hills neighborhood, Bubba’s friendly waves get honks from passing cars. Jessica shares that Bubba is such a busy boy, his pediatrician suggested enrolling him in a daycare program so he could socialize with other children.
Bubba is the second child these two have fostered through Angels. The first was a newborn girl they picked up from the hospital who stayed with them for four months. "She was sweet, and loving, and loved to be held," Joseph recalls. Jessica adds, "It was heart-wrenching when she left, but with fostering you get your heart broken."
Although it is painful to say goodbye to foster children when they are reunified with their biological families, Jessica and Joseph say it's worth it to know they are helping children by providing a loving, stable environment during a critical time in their lives.
The couple decided to foster after experiencing fertility issues. “We have a lot of love to give and a friend who fostered through Angels recommended we look into it,” Jessica explains. “I really believe everything happens for a reason and this is what we were meant to do.”
Joseph says that as they were in the information session, they looked at each other and knew they could foster. “I appreciate that they didn’t sugar coat anything and really took their time to educate us,” he recalls. “They take it very seriously and that makes me proud to be with Angels because once you’re in it, there’s no giving up.”
Most infants and toddlers reunify with a biological family member, a fact that makes Jessica and Joseph value their time with Bubba even more. “Knowing we can get that call any day saying he’s going back makes us want to make every day special,” says Joseph. “We’re in it for the love.”
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