The decision to become a foster or adoptive parent is filled with hope, anticipation and sometimes anxiety. Ultimately, it’s a decision families make to open their hearts and homes to children in need of a family.
Foster Care Training and Support
Catholic Charities gives foster and adoptive parents extensive training during the licensing process. They also receive support from a caseworker.
Catholic Charities caseworkers help adoptive parents one step at a time to get through the ups and down of foster care and adoption. Recently, one family needed an extra helping hand during a crisis situation.
“As newly adoptive parents, Agnes was our caseworker through Catholic Charities,” said “Tricia,” a mother of an adopted daughter. “She helped us through the process, but that was just the beginning. Agnes always found us the answers or resources we needed.”
As Tricia welcomed her adopted daughter into her home, her daughter began to show symptoms of trauma. For Tricia and her husband, this became a difficult situation, and they needed some rest time to regroup and get more information on how to care for their child.
“We hit a crisis with our daughter’s behavior,” said Tricia. “We were at our breaking point and needed to get a night of respite to think and pray about the situation. As our adoption had finalized, I talked to our adoption subsidy caseworker. He told me that it was my job to find a source for respite care. But when we called Agnes, she made multiple calls and provided me with the name and number of a person who was willing to help.”
Agnes, like many other Catholic Charities caseworkers in the foster care and adoption program, provide ongoing support to parents.
“I’m not sure how we would have handled the situation without Agnes,” said Tricia. “This speaks volumes about her character and dedication.”
Interested in Foster Care
If you’re thinking of fostering or adopting a child, Catholic Charities caseworkers can help you learn more and give you support through the process. For more information including our class schedule, please call Sally Gramke at 602-650-4825.
*Catholic Charities welcomes families from diverse cultural, ethnic, social and religious backgrounds.
