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There are currently seven kids living in our home and two living out on their own. This blog came about after some encouragement from both my husband and a group of friends, whom I guess find me entertaining. Maybe it isn’t me directly that they find entertaining but rather all the dumb crap that seems to happen to me on a regular basis. Either way, I have found the best way to survive is to find the humor. After some crazy experiences, I can find the humor in just about anything.

I parent teenagers. Both neuro-typical teenagers and those exposed to trauma and experiencing foster care, for whatever reason. Neither breed of teenager is a cake walk. Some days I feel like all I say all day long is, “This is not my negotiating face. Go put on a real shirt. You know, the kind with the bottom half.” After all, I am the only person enforcing a dress code at our local high school.

My days consist of advocating for said teenagers, laundry, appointments, cleaning, and the occasional eliminating of food hoards from random places. I don’t know how many of you find your dishes inside of dressers and pull back comforters to find a stash of what I can only guess was chicken nuggets and ranch, along with some cereal boxes, and discarded soda cans.

I am what our child placement agency calls a unicorn. There are a serious shortage of foster homes, and the list willing to accept teenagers is even smaller. So here I am, the foster parent unicorn. Welcome to my crazy.

If you have questions about becoming a foster parent, reach out to a Foster Care Navigator.