Isn’t that interesting that your friend grew up with 2 deaf parents and learned how to talk from her grandparents who spoke Canjun french? Very interesting.

Language is funny – it’s sort of like learning how to fly. You practice it often enough, you become fluent but if you stop, then your skills become rusty. Kind of like what happens when you stop flying. Sometimes months would go by before I would pick up flying, which would mean practicing take offs and landings again. But like with a bike, you never really forget things – the skills you learned come back to you – eventually.

Louises last blog post..Charleston Grill Shrimp and Grits

Incredible story! Thanks so much for sharing and giving all of us a big peek into your world.

The homes that we worked in were supported by different church groups which provided money, food and clothes for the kids. We were given salaries from the home and had no rent since we lived in one of their cottages. My husband Daniel was also paid to run their Recreation Center which means he had a play that the kids could go and play Table Tennis, watch movies, play pool, lift weights which was Daniel’s specialty. We organized outings for the kids and did normal parent stuff like doctor’s appointments, basketball games, baseball games, swimming, etc.

For meals, we did menus for meals and everybody had certain duties just like any big family. The children’s home had a storage room where they collected a lot of food from the supporting churches and other organizations. We did most of our shopping for food there. Then we had a checking account supplied by the home that other expenses came out of. The home also provided vans for each cottage for transportation. There were benefits and drawbacks just like with any other large family. Outings were fun and had to really be organized well. The only kid that I ever lost and that was for about 10 minutes was my son at a Christmas concert. He thought he knew the way back to the bus that we had taken and he took off running while I gathered all the other boys together. We got to the bus and he wasn’t there. I was scared and then when I found him I got mad and chewed him out good before we got to the bus. He never did that again. I think it scared him too being lost. He was about 9 or 10 years old at the time just beginning to think he knew more than mom.

Have I given you too much information or just enough to confuse you?

Patricia – Spiritual Journey Of A Lightworkers last blog post..Shame, The Abuser’s Friend

I can imagine how noisy it must have been with boys in that age group. There must have been the strong presence of testosterone in those days. How did you handle it?

So this is a fascinating discussion. Indulge us if you will, because I’m not familiar with the foster care system.

Why would the foster care system let you, for example, adopt kids only to have to send them back home after a certain period of time? They were adopted for a reason, right?

Here’s another question: How did you manage to feed so many mouths? That can’t be cheap!

Thanks for sharing your incredible, powerful, inspiring story. It’s not every day we meet a lady who once had so many foster kids at one time.

Patricia – Spiritual Journey Of A Lightworkers last blog post..Shame, The Abuser’s Friend

As you can see, I’ve been working backwards in responding to the comments. I don’t yet have a system that enables me to respond directly to comments within the administration system of WP.

But here we are – I’m so glad you found this article to be of hearwarming substance. As I mentioned earlier to one of the other commentators, I really enjoyed writing it. It actually started as an email I was writing to the director of the family services center who organized this event. While I was writing that, an idea came to me and suddenly I found myself not only being inspired but thought how nice of a story it’d be for the blog. Hence what you just read.

Thanks for sharing with us today.

That’s it, that’s it! You nailed it perfectly: being around kids opens your heart charkra to love. Yes, yes. It’s exactly what I’ve been trying to say. That’s precisely what happened that day. Amazing, really.

Even when the mother showed the boy this article, he remembered me. I’m so glad I had that experience. Now I have another story to add to my life’s experiences.

You certainly had a handful of kids in your house. Wow. I can only imagine what that might be like. Was it noisy? Stressful? Of course, nothing is a bed of roses – you must have had some challenges?

I’m sure the foster boys and girls you and your husband cared for will always remember your love and support. I wouldn’t be surprised if many of them came looking for you years later to let you know how much you impacted their lives.

I’m grateful that even if you and I didn’t have role models in our presence when growing up, at least we can turn around and be one today.

I know what you mean about Helen Keller being a “weak” role model b/c you didn’t know her and so forth. But many of us have role models that have long ago passed. They continue to live on the screen, in books, magazines, etc.

The book you recommended sounds really interesting. I’ll have to check it out – I love inspirational/motivational books.

You bet that a child’s acceptance of you is just as special. It’s actually incredible. I’ll never forget my experience with that kid. When he was crying his eyes out and sharing with me his devastation, I was pulled right into his world. Amazing.

And the smile at the end – absolutely priceless. You can’t put a price on something like that.