Donna Hawkins loves being a mom.
In her Okemos home, Hawkins and her husband, John, care for foster children ranging from infants to teenagers. They’ve adopted seven, and may adopt an eighth they’re taking care of now.
“I’ve always enjoyed spending time with kids,” Hawkins said.
She began foster parenting in 1989 when an 11-year-old girl and her 6-year-old brother, now Hawkins’ two eldest children, were placed in her home.
Unable to choose between and among sets of siblings, Hawkins has adopted children in twos and threes into her family.
“I know, out of everything else these kids go through, to give up a brother or a sister would be absolutely traumatic for them,” she said. “I couldn’t just take one or two. What would that do to the rest of them?”
Hawkins is one of many foster and adoptive parents whom a bill recently introduced by state Rep. Barb Vander Veen, R-Allendale, aims to support.
“There is a need for an agency that pulls together services for foster parents,” Vander Veen said. “Our foster parents are just going above and beyond the call of duty.”
Vander Veen has proposed the creation of six pilot resource centers around the state for foster and adoptive parents. Each center would be designed by the foster parents it would serve, offering any number of services from counseling to clothing to mentoring of one foster parent by another.
“The strength of this plan is that it lets the people who will benefit from the services design and identify them,” said Gary Anderson, director of MSU’s School of Social Work. “There are many varieties of supporting foster parents that need to be explored. Michigan is facing a crisis in recruiting foster parents.”
Vander Veen cited low retention rates for foster parents as a major motivation for her proposal.
The resource center legislation is pending in the House following a second reading on the bill held Thursday.
Marylou Bax, a support group coordinator for the Michigan Foster and Adoptive Parents Association and the mother of 13 adopted children and two biological children, said community support is key for foster families.
“Most people in communities may not have foster children but want to help,” she said. “This would cost the state very little. With seed money the community could come through and keep it going. Church groups provide clothes, civic groups offer tutoring. We’re letting the community know our kids need help.”
Bax has fostered more than 100 children since she became a foster parent 27 years ago. Through the association, she works to make sure when a child comes into a foster home he or she will not have to move again until the child is adopted or returns home.
“When somebody calls and wants to be a foster parent, they’re immediately assigned to a mentor who is also a foster parent,” Bax said. “The mentor helps them through the licensing process and through six months of their first placement. Usually the friendship keeps going long after that.”
There are eight children living in Bax’s home, ages 4 to 17. She adopted five boys three years ago and no longer receives foster placements. Instead of a burden, Bax calls them a blessing.
“Foster care is something we try to keep secret,” Bax said. “It’s a community and society failure; we can’t fix it so we try to ignore it. Since they stay in homes longer, children tend to be more damaged than they used to be.”
