Fostering Love

Being a Kid
Cheri and Harry Wright of Catawissa, Pa., also welcomed a young children into their home after raising two of their own.

The difference is that the 6-year-old girl is actually their great niece.

"This wasn't anything we planned to do, but the opportunity came when the child was placed in foster care," Cheri said. "We called Children and Youth right away to keep her with family."

Sometimes a child just needs a break from a difficult situation to come to a place of peace and time to "just be a kid," Cheri said.

"It is a good feeling to know we could help someone and touch the life of a child."

Though having a young child in the home was difficult, it has been an "absolute joy," Cheri said. "I mean, we have grandchildren her age," she said.

Despite the fact that the Wright's already raised their own children, they knew it was the right thing to do to take in their great niece.

"It was a God thing and it was meant to happen this way," Cheri said. "We have been blessed as much as she has been," she added.

Providing kinship care has allowed the birth family an easier time at accommodating visitation and phone calls.

Also, the situation has brought the family closer together and Cheri said they will maintain a better relationship then in the past.

Breaking the Chain
The most rewarding thing to see being a foster parent would be to "eventually see these kids grow up and be good parents," Brenda said, all the while knowing she would probably never know.

She said, it is for this reason, that she and her family strive to teach the children the importance of stability within a home is.

"I pray they will remember this and that, the time we sang songs, laughed and danced to music," she said.

Often children placed in the foster care system grow up and end up back in the system, Brenda said.

"We are trying to break the chain of bad parenting."