Wil Andruschak

Foster parent Linda Stewart says taking in children can be challenging but rewarding. ‘Each child is unique,’ she says

Linda Stewart and her husband have taken between 140 and 150 babies into their home over the past 33 years.

“For years and years, I had an aunt who had foster babies,” recalls Stewart, who also has a biological daughter and three adopted daughters. “When I had a child, I decided I would stay home with her, and fostering was a way to do that and to add to the family without the financial burden.”

Unfortunately, families like the Stewarts are in increasingly short supply across the province. More and more children need foster care, but according to Trelaine Robanske of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary, “families aren’t taking in foster children the way they used to.”

There are many reasons for this. “There are more two-career parents and families that are functioning well and don’t see a need to foster,” says Robanske. And, just as baby boomers are retiring from the workforce, foster parents are retiring, too, with few to take their places.

The Boys and Girls Club currently has 28 children on their roster in the care of 12 families, but still needs at least seven foster homes. Other agencies in the city that provide foster services — including Aspen; McMan Youth, Family and Community Services; Hull Child and Family Services; and Closer to Home Community Services — need about five to seven foster families each.

With the dearth of foster families, agencies are willing to try anything — word of mouth, newspaper ads, presentations at community centres — to get the word out and recruit potential foster parents.

“It’s an opportunity for parents to stay at home,” says Robanske. She says typical foster parents are young families, often with kids starting school. “It’s an opportunity for parents to enhance and add to their families, and make a difference in the life of a child,” she says.

Foster children range in age from newborn babies to 18-year-old adults. The goal of foster care is to provide a temporary place for children to stay before they are returned to their biological families or put in adoptive care. Time in foster care can range from several days, says Robanske, “to one young lady who has been in foster care for eight years.”

Over 60 per cent return to their biological families, and foster families provide an important, safe and supportive transition environment to children who have experienced hardship early in their lives.

The caring atmosphere of a foster home helps children develop healthy values and behaviours. According to Foster Care Alberta, “foster parents also ensure that a child's mental, emotional and physical needs are met and help maintain familial, cultural, social and religious ties.”

There are benefits to fostering, but it’s not an easy road. Often, children in foster care have endured traumatic experiences early in their lives. Some children have been abandoned, some have conflicts with their parents, some have been neglected or abused, and some have been exposed to drugs and alcohol. Keeping this in mind, it is important for potential foster parents to be well-informed and prepared for both the rewards and the challenges of fostering.

“Each child is unique,” says Stewart. The babies she takes in are “drug babies” — infants who were exposed to drugs and alcohol before birth. “A sense of humour is important. You have to be flexible — you’re always moving furniture — and very patient.”

Fortunately, there are support groups for foster parents, as well as mentorship programs and caseworkers to help families through the process of fostering a child.

For Stewart, the experience has been worth it. “For me, and for others who take in babies, it’s addictive,” she says. “It’s how I let go. You think, OK, now on to the next. What’s the next one going to be like?

“What has happened to them is so unfair, and the effects are lifelong.” But ultimately, she says, “a baby is a baby is a baby. They all need love and care.”