Welcome to our 6-part video series on foster parenting!  In the following videos, you will meet families who were interviewed about their experiences as foster parents.  You will learn about some of the common misconceptions about being a foster parent, and will learn about ways you can get involved in the world of foster care.  Next to each video you will see a short description and a link to an accompanying blog.  We would encourage you to explore all the content below, spend time in prayer to see how you might be used to help children in need, and consult Christ-like influences to obtain counsel.  Should you have any questions, feel free to browse our FAQ page or reach us by phone or email through our Contact Us page.

In part one of this series, meet four Christian families who have fostered and/or adopted in the state of Arizona.  Learn about what motivated them to become licensed foster parents, and see how you can help with the foster child crisis in Arizona.  To learn about the general requirements and path to become a foster parent, please read Steps to Becoming a Foster Parent.

Meet Kyle and Mallory, a Christian couple that have been foster parents for the last five years.  Many Christians say that they cannot foster because it would be too hard to say goodbye to the children.  Kyle and Mallory explore this topic by discussing their attachment to foster children and the transition of children returning home.  To learn more about this topic, please read Saying Goodbye and Other Reasons we Foster.

Jake and Laurel discuss their experience of becoming foster parents at the age of 22.  They reflect back on some of their initial hesitations to become foster parents, and how they came to realize that the need to take in children was greater than those hesitations.  One of their fears was that their apartment would be too small.  To learn about home requirements, please read Home Inspections 101.

Paul and Nikki fostered and then adopted two girls and also have two biological sons.  Watch them discuss how they were convicted that God’s blessings to their family were designed to bless foster children, and how their faith played a major role in their foster parenting.  To learn about the ministry opportunities given to foster parents, please read The Ministry of Foster Care.

We return to Jake and Laurel as they explore the topic of shared parenting.  Shared parenting is the building of a positive alliance between foster parents and birth parents on behalf of children in foster care.  Jake and Laurel discuss how their attitude changed toward families who have had their children put into foster care, and how they have come to love their child’s family.  To learn more about what shared parenting is and how it works, please read Connecting Foster Families and Birth Families.

Kyle and Mallory return to discuss the effects of foster care on their family and how they needed to adjust to meet the needs of each individual child.  To learn about the children in foster care and how to parent a foster child, please read Who are the kids in care?