![\"Ashley](\"http:\/\/stigmaunmasked.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/Rogers_CASA_AshleySoldaat-300x200.jpg\")
Ashley Soldaat, Delaware County’s CASA director<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n Sarah and her husband began fostering after their teenage daughter said she thought they would be good at it. As someone who already works with the Court Appointed Special Advocates, Sarah knew how badly foster families were needed, and she wanted to help.<\/p>\n The first girl the couple fostered was said to have a history of stealing and self-harm. Eric and Sarah were nervous \u2014 this was their first foster child \u2014 but they came to discover that Faith was a great girl. The stealing was an activity Faith’s biological mother would get her to do. She was getting help for the self-harming. And she had previously been taking care of her younger sister.<\/p>\n After staying with Sarah and Eric, Faith was able to move in with her grandparents. She started moving forward \u2014 getting a car, a job, a GED. She got a boyfriend and started taking college courses. The girl who had shown up at their doorstep had gotten a chance at a better life.<\/p>\n “She’ll still text me or email me every so often,” Sarah said. “She’s doing great. \u2026 And it\u2019s so great to see.”<\/p>\n Faith became their reason to keep fostering.<\/p>\n When things got hard \u2014 and fostering is always hard \u2014 Sarah and Eric would think back to their first foster child. When Sarah was manipulating her schedule in order to get two foster girls to school 20 minutes away, she thought of Faith. When a Department of Child Services case manager lied about a foster child’s past problems with sexual behavior \u2014 putting their youngest daughter at risk of harm \u2014 Sarah and Eric thought of Faith. And now, after their most recent foster child threatened Eric with a razor, he thinks of Faith.<\/p>\n “In a way [Faith] kept us going because, ultimately, she was one of the worst traumatized kids that we had and she definitely did her best,” Eric said. “We always smile when we talk about [Faith].”<\/p>\n Being foster parents has taught Sarah and Eric a few things. First, foster parenting is a grueling, time-demanding, emotional process. It starts with a phone call that can occur at any time of the day. They received the call about their most recent foster children at 10 p.m. one night; the girls were dropped off at midnight.<\/p>\n \u201cYou’ve got to say yay or nay right there,\u201d Sarah said. \u201cYou know their ages, you might know a tiny bit about their background and that\u2019s all you know.\u201d<\/p>\n Then they have to welcome the children into their home and work them into their lives. That means taking the children to school or therapy or visitation with their biological parents. That means teaching table manners and providing structure by having family meals. That means encouraging the children to do their best in school and being the voice \u2014 maybe the first voice \u2014 that tells them they are smart and are capable of doing better. Fostering takes physical and emotional strength.<\/p>\n “Your whole world gets kind of turned on its head, and you’ve got, now, a whole bunch of stuff to do that you didn’t have to do before,” Sarah said. “But then on flip side of it, you’ve got these kids in your house that just, you can tell they just really need some stability. They really just need somebody \u2026 that’s just not going to neglect them, that’s going to do the things that need to be done to take care of them.”<\/p>\n Article continues below video.<\/i>
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