- my iParenting
- quick clicks
- iparenting adoption articles
- iparenting adoption q&a
- community & groups
- research baby names
- prepare a birth plan
- content channels
- ip channel rss feeds
- read birth stories
- read parenting stories
- recommended books
- e-newsletters
- safety recalls
- ip diaries
- ip store
- mom of the month
- dad of the month
- editor's letter
- letters to the editor
From Our Sponsors
- e-newsletters
- Sign up to receive our free weekly e-newsletters
- award-winning products
The iParenting Media Awards program helps parents find the best products for their families.
Adoption Alternatives
Multiple Ways to "Parent" a Family
By Sue Marquette Poremba
Annette Sims of Mt. Dora, Fla., always loved children. "When I was growing up, I always wanted to work at an orphanage to help needy children," she says. "I believe every child deserves to grow up in a family and to be loved."
When her children became teenagers, Sims decided to take some action on her dream and signed up to become a foster parent. She has now been a foster parent for eight years. While she has since adopted some of the foster children that were in her care, it was never her intent at the beginning. Many of the children she has had live with her were infants and toddlers, children born premature or addicted to drugs or with severe emotional issues.
"Foster parenting can bring great joy and satisfaction, because you're providing a loving home for a child who desperately needs one, but it can also be a great challenge," says Brette McWhorter Sember, retired attorney and author of The Adoption Answer Book: Your Complete Guide to a Successful Adoption (Sourcebooks, 2007).
Foster parenting is also an alternative for adults who aren't sure they want to be full-time, permanent parents. It's also attractive to parents who have grown children and would like to be involved in the life of a child without having another biological child or going through the adoption process.
Foster parenting can be a temporary situation, where the child comes to live with you for a couple of days or for years. It can also lead to adoption, either by plan or by fate. It is also a way to discover whether or not you are prepared – emotionally, mentally or physically – to bring a child into the home permanently through adoption. "In foster parenting, you agree to care for and raise a child whose parents are temporarily unable to care for the child," Sember says. "The state retains custody of the children and you work through an agency that contracts with the state to care for them. You need to take [a] parenting class and become an approved foster parent."