Alyssa Ridenour
reporter@greenepublishing.com
The goal of foster care is to provide a safe place for kids while their parents get the help they need and learn appropriate parenting skills so they can be a family again. There were 22,000 kids in out-of-home care in Florida as of July 2020. Forty-eight percent of children were reunited with their families in 2017. When reuniting kids with their families is impossible, the program tries to find them a permanent home through adoption.
Older children who cannot be reunited with their families have a significantly higher risk of aging out, meaning they will turn 18 and leave the foster system without ever finding a home or family. These young adults also have limited resources to help them and no family. This means they have no one to share holidays with, no one to celebrate their achievements with and no one to support them or provide assistance when they need help. Without a family to call their own, their chances for homelessness and drug abuse become much higher. There is a great need for foster families, especially ones who are willing to take in older kids and sibling groups.
Meet the Johnson family, residents of Madison. Jessica Johnson is a loving wife to her husband, Jason Johnson, and a dedicated mother of three kids: Adrianna (23), Jayce (17) and the family's most recent addition, Johnethan "Ethan" (4). The family began fostering about five years ago and typically had one foster kid at a time in their home. Ethan arrived in their care when he was just a few days old. "After months of trying, his mom was not able to take care of herself or him, so she made one of the hardest decisions of her life and terminated her rights so that she could give him the best gift she could give." said Mrs. Johnson.
Fast forward a few years and Ethan is still with the Johnson family. In December of 2017, the Johnsons decided to adopt little Ethan. Mrs. Johnson explains her decision to adopt him as "God's plan." She says her husband and kids fully supported the decision and have loved Ethan like he was their own. The Johnsons did not go into fostering with the intentions to adopt, but they were asked if they would, and they knew it was part of God's plan for them.
Her voice pipes up with excitement as she talks about Ethan saying, "He likes all things boy: monster trucks, power rangers and guitars." Mrs. Johnson said she even plans on enrolling Ethan in guitar lessons.
The Johnson family is still fostering kids today. They are also part of a program called "Respite." Respite is a short term care program that other fosters can use when they cannot take the children with them when they go out of town or have emergencies. Respite is also used for the temporary placement of children coming into the foster system until they find them a long-term foster home. Mrs. Johnson urges families to foster if they can. She says, "There is a great need for foster families for these kids, especially teens."