Mike and Eleanore's Story

Have you already raised your own kids? Are you an empty nester who misses going to high school basketball games or visiting with other parents at school events? Maybe you'll want to consider doing what Mike and Eleanore did and put that parenting experience to good use for children in foster care!

Mike and Eleanore share how they became foster parents not once, but twice even, and their journey along the way.

Mike and Eleanore's Story

We became interested in providing foster care in the year 1974. The local television station was asking people to consider becoming foster parents to children in need. We already knew about the foster care system because I had worked for the Union County Welfare Office prior to getting married. We signed on the “dotted line” (back then, they did not require hardly any training) and got a placement shortly after.

We were privileged to be chosen to take care of a five and a half month old baby boy in May, 1974. After having him in our home for a little over two years, he joined our family (my husband, our four-year-old biological daughter, and me) in October, 1976, through adoption. This baby boy has been a blessing to our family. Since adopting him, we also had four other biological children.

Since our first five children were all grown, married, and had children of their own, and our youngest son was ten years old, we decided to take the PS-MAPP classes and become foster parents again. In May of 2004, we became foster parents, and in May of 2005, we were blessed with the placement of a four-month-old little girl. In September of 2012, we adopted her and she became our seventh child.

Foster care can open up so many different possibilities to families, from mentoring parents to stepping up and adopting these children and giving them a stable and loving home.

- Mike and Eleanore