From Dori:
I just had a health and safety inspection with one of my homes where the foster parents shared that both the kids have been doing so great in school and they love school. The girl, in kindergarten, is making many new friends and is reading short books. The boy in preschool, who was speech delayed, is doing great in speech therapy and is speaking in 4-5 word sentences now! These children have been in this home for a little over a year. This is such a wonderful story showing how stability, nurturing and love can have such an impact on children’s lives.
From Celeste:
As the Activities Director of CFSF, I have had the opportunity to attend many of our events and activities across WA state. I have to share one of the most joyous and fun activities I recently was able to be a part of. We just had our Omak Christmas event which was held outside at a park due to Covid. Our Eastern WA staff worked hard to put together Christmas gifts for not only our foster children but the foster parents’ children as well as for our foster parents. We even had a Santa at the event who was one of our staff members’ husband. It was so sweet to see the children’s happy faces as they received presents. One boy’s eyes lit up as he was given a stack of presents. When one of the families arrived, their youngest foster child ran up to Santa with the biggest smile on his face. And if this wasn’t enough, people who live in the Omak area saw Santa and came by to take pictures. We even had a grandmother see us out there and she went back to get her grandkids so they could take pictures with Santa. I’ve been with CFSF for over 17yrs and I have to say this is one of the best experiences I have ever had. What an amazing staff who was able to bless our foster kids, our foster parents and their kids, and even some of the community of Omak. This event embodied what CFSF is about.
From Cory:
At one of our recent Christmas Drive Thru events, the kids were adorable!! One worked so hard to make Santa beautiful gifts, complete with fruit snacks, a walnut and a chip! A family driving by saw Santa and pulled over to get a picture and then an hour later came back with their daughter who was in Mexico on FaceTime because when she heard the others got to see Santa she began crying. They wanted to include her as well! There were even a couple of other families from the Omak community that came by to see Santa too. Such an amazing day!!
From Kari:
One of my families adopted a sibling group of 4 in September. My understanding is that Jimmy was originally placed in another home and my family fell in love with him at church. My family became licensed and took placement of him and then his sister, Joanie, a few months later. Then in December, two more sisters, Jill and Linda, came into the home. The family have enrolled all four kids in various activities, from football to voice lessons, cheerleading, and Ninja warrior classes. They are now one big, happy family.
From Celeste:
In my many years at CFSF, I have worn different hats and recently I started helping out with respite. It’s been such a blessing to see how our foster parents who do respite are such giving people and what a much-needed service to our foster parents that are tired, need a vacation, or have life events that just come up. Recently we had a very long respite to find someone to care for two little ones within a 2-day notice timeframe before it began. We reached out to different families and one of them, who has been a lifesaver, said they could do half of the respite. We also worked with the State, who found a foster family to do the other half. It was truly teamwork. And just within this last week, we had a foster family who needed respite as the family needed some medical procedures done. One of our homes really wanted to care for the 2 little ones, and our CFSF licensor worked with the Department to get an approval for the home to take the kids. It was a great blessing to see how this respite came together, knowing the needs of the respite family and the importance of the medical needs to be addressed for the foster family. We can’t tell you how important the role of respite is for foster parents.
From Emily:
JA came into one of our BRS foster homes almost two years ago. He had been having challenges in school with his grades mainly D’s and F’s. JA also was involved in physical and verbal altercations with other youth from the group home he was coming from. During my first meeting with JA, we were being cursed out within about five minutes. JA didn’t like meetings at all. Through listening to JA and learning about his hobbies and what he did want to talk about, the team was able to keep him engaged in meetings, and JA also learned to express in a more positive manner how to leave meetings if he did not want to be there. He still did not like most meetings but would participate for a few minutes and then ask if he could leave instead of yelling and cursing.
Over time he settled into the foster home well. He got along with the other youth, who all mainly kept to themselves, and when he would get frustrated, he was able to go to his room and de-escalate. He helped the foster parent around the house and was always open to any sort of redirection. Multiple different youth moved into and out of the home during JA’s stay and he has always done well with the changes. He was even engaging in conversation with some of the more recent youth and was open to feedback from a peer about his hygiene.
He had been getting settled into school and starting to improve his grades when COVID hit. He struggled at first with the online learning and having to learn how to complete his schoolwork at home, but he did well at talking to the foster parent and utilizing the other supports such as his treehouse advocate. JA continued to improve his grades and graduated high school with A’s and B’s this summer. After graduating JA was able to talk about wanting to find employment and has been receptive to working with his SW to refer to DVR.
JA also has a very strong connection with his grandmother who lives in Aberdeen, WA. This relationship is extremely important to him and CFSF was able to arrange transport for him to visit with her every other weekend, and longer on holidays for his entire stay in the home. As of this Friday JA will be moving in with his grandmother as an EFC placement and living with his family that he has desired.
From Ellie:
CFSF employees recently had the opportunity to go “the extra mile” in support of one of our birth mothers. This mother was entering treatment and would be missing a visit with her children. Come to find out, the mom had been mistaken on her dates. She really wanted to see her kids before entering treatment. With a great amount of scrambling by her State Social Worker, CFSF Case Manager, CFSF Director of Case Aide and a dedicated Case Aide, the visit was quickly rescheduled. Mom was very happy and felt supported as she went into her program. We know this visit meant a lot to her and wish her success in her treatment.
From Cassie:
Joe has been in his current foster home for almost 2 years. Over the last year he has worked hard to lose weight and get to a healthy weight for his body. He has lost a total of 45 pounds and has learned how to cook healthy meals for himself. He really enjoys spending time in the kitchen and learning new recipes.
On top of his weight loss, this last year he turned 18 and entered extended foster care. He is set to graduate high school in June. He is the first in his biological family to graduate high school! After graduation he will be leaving for Job Corps to become a lineman. He has accomplished so much in the last year and has great goals and ambitions for his future.
From Celeste:
Charlie has been with his foster family for over 10yrs. He has high functioning autism and is now 20yrs old.
Charlie is an incredible young adult. He graduated from high school and is now attending college working on getting his Associate’s. Prior to Covid, Charlie mastered riding the public bus, getting himself to and from College.
Charlie is a very talented musician and singer. He was brave enough at one time to stand up in his high school lunch room to sing a song. His school asked him to sing at their high school graduation. Because Charlie liked a Christian singer his foster parents entered him into a contest to meet the singer in person. Charlie won the contest and was able to meet him. It was a great moment.
Charlie is very motivated and decided he was going to start helping out at a horse rescue facility. The day he decided to do this, it was pouring down rain, and Charlie didn’t care. He worked all day and still continues to volunteer there.
Charlie is an inspiration to us all. He has overcome a lot in his life, but with the love and support of his foster family, Charlie is achieving his goals and has a bright future ahead of him.
From Katie:
One of my BRS youth, Janet, was officially adopted by her foster family; the first youth to be adopted out of BRS within my office.
Janet has been with the foster home for a little over a year and has come so far. She has a very different background from a lot of our kids. She was privately adopted by her grandmother as a baby and unfortunately her grandmother passed away when she was 12.
When Janet came to the foster home she was really struggling behaviorally and emotionally. I’ve watched her grow into a caring and sweet young lady.
Janet is very creative, she is currently teaching herself to draw. Janet loves having older brothers and really looks up to them. She also has a lot of fun playing with her little sister. Janet was so happy at the adoption. Both Janet and her Mom have stated that they knew Janet was meant to be their child since she came to the home and they are so happy it is finally official.
