Read what current foster parents and resource family workers have to say about their experiences:

"We love being foster parents and would encourage anyone who loves children to consider it. You just have to have patience and lots of love. It does take work, but the love you receive back makes it worth it. I would recommend to anyone who loves children to call DCCCA and try being a foster parent. You will meet all kinds of kids but basically they all want someone to believe in them and love them. Even the toughest kids want to be loved. They may not know how to accept that love at first but they will come to understand that you care. Your love can make a difference in the future of a child." - Elaine Worden, Topeka, KS

"Being a resource parent is something I am good at. I love learning new parenting ways. We have adopted three of our children in foster care. You can not believe the feeling you get when you see a child no one else believed in succeed in your home. The support I get from my DCCCA staff helps make our job easier. Knowing they are there 24/7 for me helps me continue to be there for the children." - Joann Kurth, Great Bend, KS

"Being foster parents has been challenging and enhancing to our family. The challenges are overshadowed by the enjoyment and  satisfaction of knowing that we have made a difference in children’s lives, that we have had the pleasure of  having in our home.  Every child has  unique  reason for being in foster care and every child’s needs are different. Our family had the blessing of  adopting a child that had been in our home." - Betty Hazlett, Great Bend, KS

"I became a resource parent because it was a dream of my wife's. Now it is my dream. When they leave your home at 18 and continue to call you "mom & dad" when they are in their 20's just because...that is a great thing!" - Neil V., Pawnee Rock, KS

"It is rewarding to see the resource families providing a supportive, stable environment for the foster children and assisting them in excelling to their fullest capabilities.  It gives the foster children an opportunity to see what a "normal" family environment is to be like which the resource family is able to also teach the children what is appropriate and not appropriate in all kinds of settings, church, school, out in the public, how to relate to both peers and adults in their lives, etc.  The resource families are giving the foster children the opportunity to have some one who truely cares about them and providing them with a home until hopefully they return to their own home.  One situation that comes to mind is a resource family who has a 2, 3 and 4 year old sibling group, these children have been in this home for 8 months and to see the progress they have made is so amazing as the two older ones are both 1-2 years behind developmentally.  Through all the time and effort and extra services the foster family has gotten the children into, they are slowly catching up to their actual age and also, physically.  I enjoy working with the resource families and supporting their efforts in working with the foster children as the resource families are the ones who are giving children a chance for positive change in their lives." - Nancy Free, DCCCA Resource Family Worker, Pittsburg, KS

"A male teenager was ready to transition out of a recovery services program into a resource family home. He had made a decision that going back home was not in his best interest at that time. He was placed in a home that had lots of experience with teenage kids. He recently called to thank me for everything and for placing him in the best foster home. He is now ready to be released and to return home. He said his foster home was having a family gathering to celebrate his transition of him going back home and that his foster mother commented, 'even though you are leaving our home, our door will always be open to you!' " - Sheila Forrest, DCCCA Resource Family Worker, Pittsburg, KS