Our fostering experience

I mentioned, recently, the children next door on the south of our property. Without going into details, which are not pleasant, I will say this: we fostered the two children for seven months, meanwhile their mother had remarried and now had a stable marriage. Things came to a head with the children and we knew we needed to give our entire attention to our own children when Deb, who was now working said, "Mom, I know the kids need you so let me move to the YWCA." This was after the little girl had found Deb's five years of artwork and defaced every one of her pieces. This was just the culminating event, I had just the night before been told by Mel that we would take them back to the Welfare people the very next day because he saw the devastating effect she was having on me. Fortunately when we took them back they told us that we were going to lose them soon because their mother wanted them back. However, my feelings of guilt about what we had to do kept bugging me for weeks after. As a result I eventually called Sister Shewmaker, a missionary who was working with her husband in the Hillside Church of Christ. I poured out my heart to her, and when I had finished she said, very sweetly, "Lois, you did the right thing. Remember this, God gave you your children; you voluntarily took on the responsibility of those other children of your own free will."  Thank you Sister Shewmaker!!

It was while we had the children that my mother decided, strictly on her own, to use the settlement of Dad's will to move into one of the old-age communities, Coronation Cottages, and live independently. This freed up her flatlet for our use.