Foster daughters

"Interestingly, the age difference has played a role in a positive way," Erin explains. "Our dad comes from a generation where women are more passive. He is also passive about his feelings. Kat has really pushed him to open up. We could get into a fight, and then Kat's like, 'No, you have to pick up the phone, call your daughter back.' She's a facilitator, which is really important. She pushes him to be more emotional and more vulnerable." "But, the way I've resolved it, there's 10 things that can bring a marriage down," he says. "There's infidelity, there's geography, there's finances, there's kids ... There's so many things that can bring a marriage down. Only one of the 10 is an age difference. So if we feel like we have the other nine right, that we're really solid on the other nine, the one is not going to break us up." "We are not dating our dad so we are not competitive with the woman who comes into his life," she adds. "We want him to be happy, and it doesn't matter if she's our age or if she's his age because we just want him to be with a good person. And the truth is, ironically, it's much easier for us to get along with someone who's our age because she's similar to us. She's someone who we would be friends with. When you visit the site, Dotdash Meredith and its partners may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. Cookies collect information about your preferences and your devices and are used to make the site work as you ex...

Thank you for considering foster care or adoption as an option for your family. Below you will find more information about foster care and adoption requirements in Tennessee. On this page: • • • • • • Tennessee's foster parents are dually approved to foster and adopt. This allows foster parents to adopt the child they are fostering should the child become available for adoption. To be approved as a foster-adoptive parent in Tennessee you: • Can be married, single or divorced • May or may not have other children • Can own or rent where you live • Can work full-time • Must be at least 21 years of age • Must be a resident of the state of Tennessee • Must be fingerprinted and pass a background check • Must be able to meet the financial needs of your family To prepare for your role as foster parent, you will learn effective tools and parenting methods to work with the children in foster care as well as gain an understanding of the different challenges faced by children in state custody. Through the pre-approval TN KEY (Knowledge Empowers You) training, you will learn how foster parents work with DCS to improve the lives of children, information about current DCS policies on caring for children in custody, and ultimately if foster parenting is right for you. Whether you want to provide a temporary home for children in need or have the ultimate goal of adoption, TN KEY training will help prepare you for the unique challenges and rewards of becoming a foster parent. Are you intere...

They don’t remember the names. How could they? Ann and Al Hill fostered about 100 girls, mostly teenagers, over nearly three decades. What they do remember, and in some cases what they will never forget, are the streets where the girls moved after they left. Because they visited them. Their daughters had gone off to college, and their home in Kennedy Heights felt empty.To the Hills, it wasn’t a big deal. To hear them tell it, bringing strangers into their home and caring for them – as if they were their own kids – was no more difficult than a trip to the grocery store. This is what makes the Hills remarkable: They don’t think they did anything special. Al is sitting near their front porch, soaking up the sunshine on one of Cincinnati’s first great days of spring. Hanging from the roof is a sign that says, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers.” Not many people on their street are strangers to Al, but he waves to them anyway.When his wife steps outside, Al moves his chair up onto the porch in the shade. At 79, he has trouble walking. Ann is 78. Until last year, they were still fostering. The two sit down next to each other holding hands for a photo, canes in between their legs. They've been married for 53 years. Ann never really smiles, even though her daughter tells her to. It’s been a rough year. In August, their 46-year-old daughter Rhonda died after being diagnosed with cancer. Ann wears a necklace with her picture on it. Al does most of the talking today, and most d...

A staffing shortage in the government agency that handles Arkansas’s foster care system has led to higher caseloads and more turnover, according to the most recent Division of Children and Family Services. DCFS is a division of the state Department of Human Services. Meanwhile, the number of Arkansas children in foster care has decreased over the past year, even with a slight increase in the first three months of 2023, said Tiffany Wright, the DCFS director, and Mischa Martin, Department of Human Services Deputy Director of Youth and Families. Advertisement Wright and Martin presented the quarterly report to the state legislature’s Joint Children and Youth committee on Friday. Arkansas DHS Source: DCFS quarterly performance report There were 4,199 Arkansas children in foster care on March 31, 43 more than at the end of 2022, but the state saw a net decrease of 325 children in foster care since June 30 of last year, according to data in the report. Advertisement Wright said she believed a larger workforce with less turnover and more manageable workloads would be better equipped to serve Arkansas children and families. Martin said DCFS staff retention is especially important since they usually “need three years of experience to really feel confident in the work,” but “a significant percentage” of employees have been leaving DCFS after less than two years ever since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. “That means not [making] the best decisions, not [being] able to wo...