FOSTERING MY FAMILY
* Achievement & Excellence * Fostering & Adopting * Homesteading
Our Family
Thank you for visiting our site! This picture is just the core of our family and should include so many more that we call daughter, grandson, and granddaughter. We fostered for 11 years, a total of 31 children. Some of those children moved on to other homes and some stayed here with us. Our family includes the four children living at home, three teen moms we fostered that are now adults, and their children as well. After advocating for years with foster care and adoption, now we stay busy homeschooling our children and helping them excel to the best of their God-given abilities. Our family stays active in a number of academic competitions and sports. Thomas holds a PhD in Political Science and does some teaching and work in the foster care field. Sherri has a Master's Degree in Public Policy and left her job in the Governor's Office of Policy and Budget to stay home with the children. Our children have been homeschooled since the beginning and we have loved it. We beleive it provides them the best opportunity to succeed. We hope to share a glimpse of our life that might inspire you. As such, our website and other social accounts revolve around three areas: 1) achievment and excellence (which includes academic, sports, self-discipline, etc); 2) fostering and adopting because that is how our family has been made and it has lasting impacts in so many ways; and 3) the little bit of homesteading that we do and love.
Achievement and excellence refers to exceptional performance or achievement of students in their academic pursuits and giftings, and more holistically goes beyond simply earning good grades or succeeding at tests and encompasses other factors such as: knowledge and understanding, critical thinking and problem solving, intellectual curiosity, creativity and innovation, effective communication, time management and self-discipline, and collaboration and leadership. In addition, skills and qualities developed through high athletic participation can significantly enhance an individual’s preparedness for future endeavors. Whether you homeschool or not, here we will talk about all these things and share with you habits for growth that you can incorporate into your own family to pursue excellence.
Every year in the U.S. there are about 600,000 children in foster care and about 100,000 children adopted from foster care. Almost always children are in foster care at no fault of their own. Foster parents are intended to provide temporary care, support, and love for that child until they are reunited with their biological parents. If the child is not reunited with the biological parents, family, or friends that child may become available for adoption. This site will help answer questions you have about becoming a foster or adoptive parent, as well as serving the daily and long-term needs of children with this type of trauma. Children who come into foster care are more likely than their peers to be exposed to traumatic events, dealing with adversity in their families such as poverty, substance abuse, job loss, mental illness, homelessness, incarceration, safety issues, and neglect.
Homesteading is a fairly broad term to refer to someone is striving to achieve self-sufficiency and sustainability. Homesteaders typically strive to produce their own food through gardening, raising livestock, hunting, or fishing. They may also engage in activities such as preserving food, making their own clothes, generating renewable energy, and minimizing reliance on external systems and services. Here you will not find all of that; we just do not have time with the other things we are doing. We live in the city and have a small garden, chickens for eggs, and rabbits for meat (and personal pet therapy). And on many occasions we want to share what we have going on and track the progress of our small homestead - especially our bunnies, which we absolutely adore.
