Greetings! I was born in 1955 in a city hospital in Milwaukee Wisconsin to parents with a myriad of issues from alcoholism, limited income, a rocky marriage, and my birth mother's fragile health condition.(she had cancer when I was born ) I was born 2 mos premature and remained in the hospital for 2 mos. Then I was placed in a loving foster family for another 7 mos prior to my adoption into a lovely Christian family.
I never knew this information until I began my adoption search for my birth history and medical information in my 30's. My adoptive mom, who supported my quest, shared with me the name of the foster family that cared for me and had the address of their home. I checked the current phone directory and there was a person listed there with the same name as the foster family. I decided to write them a letter and found out later that my foster sister,Donna, who was 13 years old when I was placed with their family, carried on the foster care tradition of her parents after they died. She stayed in her parents home and was caring for 2 of the children her parents took in, who never found families. Though they were not adopted this loving daughter embraced these 2 special children and called them her family. Donna was SO pleased to receive my letter, one of the few foster children to "connect" back with them in later years after they left the home. Her parents took in over 200 children in 36 years, some staying for short terms and others staying longer depending on circumstances. What a legacy!
I corresponded with this kind foster sister and from all the 200 children that passed through her family, she "remembered me". In one of my letters I included a photo that the foster family passed on to my adoptive parents of me wearing sun glasses in a baby carriage. My foster sister said I was the first baby her parents allowed her to babysit alone with as a teen. She recalled that day and told me she "borrowed" her dads camera and took that picture of me in the sunglasses!Later she got in a bit of trouble for using it! So when I wrote and sent that photo she laughed and knew just who I was. I planned a visit a couple months later to her home in Wisc, I was living a couple hours away in Chicagoland area.
What a special day we had, her reminicising the time I was in the family and she and her sister fought over taking care of me and feeding me my bottle every time I cried. She told me I loved the family pets and loved cuddling them. She told me that her parents would have been thrilled to have met me and wished they could be there to meet me. The most amazing thing to me is that these foster parents made an envelope for each child and in it they placed pictures and any special papers. My sister went to the attic and "found" my special envelope with a dozen photos of me as a infant. How thrilling me to gather these missing pieces to my past history! I could see God has his hand on me placing me in this loving and nuturing home. And there was a discharge paper from the hospital I was born at with my formula instructions, including my birth name, weight and other statistics! This aided me in finding my birth sisters a year later!
I want to commend and honor foster parents for the loving and selfless work they do to love and nuture children who need parenting! I know that the beautiful foundation my foster parents laid down for me, gave me the emotional stability and good self esteem I have today. I love the scripture verse in the bible that says "Do not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season, you shall reap, if you faint not" This is my exhortation to you! Thanks to my foster parents, who died before I was able to meet them and thank them for investing in my life and loving me. I know it made all the difference in the world! Love from a grateful foster daughter, adopted at 9 mos and now in Adoption Ministry with adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents. I edit an adoption publication called Adoption Blessings Journal.
www.adoptionblessingsnewsletter.com . I facilitate an adoption triad support group monthly at my local church in Wheaton, IL, (Chicagoland western suburb called Adoptees, Birth Parents & Adoptive Parents Together) and I lead online adoption forums, write adoption devotionals and am married for 28 years and have 3 great sons, 2 in college, one in high school!
Thanks for letting me share my foster care experience and reunion with my foster sister with you! A beautiful part of my beginnings!
Blessings, Jody Moreen
Gratitude from a former foster child, adopted and now 50 years old
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