Dedrick Family

My husband and I both felt called to foster care at the same time. From what we hear, this is unusual. In married couples, one spouse is usually pulling the other to pursue foster care. But for us, we knew in November 2021 that it was time to start this journey. A foster care advocate had spoken at our church and his message was the catalyst for us. He said that not everyone is called to be a foster parent, but there is a role for everyone in foster care. It could be anything from bringing meals, to helping with yard work, to babysitting, to lending a listening ear. He displayed a graphic that showed all of these individuals coming around foster families in support. My husband looked at that graphic and he said, "You know we're the foster parents in that, right?" I said, "I know."

Two and a half years later, we are approved foster parents and have had seven children in foster care enter our home. We have three young children ourselves, so we foster the little ones. The current ages of children in our home are ages 6, 3, 20 months, 10 months, and 10 months. Yes, it is crazy. Yes, we often feel exhausted. But the support we receive from friends and family keeps us going.

Statistically, half of foster families quit within one year of serving in the role. I get it. Foster care is extremely challenging at times. We navigate so much - trauma behaviors, a calendar packed full of specialist appointments, family visits, court hearings... it's endless. And yet, thanks to an incredible network of family and friends, we keep doing it. I know that there are many people I can call on when I need help and I've learned to accept help when it is offered.

Foster care has been one beautiful, hard journey in our family. Sometimes the hard overshadows the beautiful, but the beauty always shines through in the end. For example, the day that our foster son was reunified with his father will forever live on in my memory. A sweet, perfect baby boy was able to go home with his dad and we got to witness the joyful moment in court where the decision was made and his dad cried tears of joy. That's why we keep doing what we do.

Many people question how we are able to say goodbye to the precious babies that leave our home. But I tell them that for most of our children, "goodbye" was not forever. We've been able to babysit children after they left our home because we developed trusting relationships with their families. We receive photos as they grow and we strive to keep the connections we made with kids intact. No matter if kids are in our home for a day or for several months, we hope that our love and support leave a lifelong positive impact.

Foster care is about building families up. We've seen the system work how it is intended to work and we've seen positive outcomes. While we wait for those positive outcomes, we just keep giving kids love and meeting their needs as best we can. We're not perfect, but we are grateful that we are able to be a safe place to land for kids when they need it.

- Carrie and Dustin Dedrick

Learn about becoming a foster parent

Speak to a foster care specialist at 1-888-2Foster