Meet Our Families - Brett & Jackie

Meet Brett and Jackie! They have been foster parents for 2 years and have 1 biological son in addition to an 11-year old girl placed in their home. Brett and Jackie see their foster parent role as providers of security, comfort, and consistency, often for kids who need it the most. 

Beginnings
We were looking for a way to give back to our community, and we didn’t have any kids of our own. We heard there was a need for foster homes for school-age kids and decided it would be something we would both like to do. We were excited, and the licensing process went very fast. We got the call about our first potential placement as soon as we were licensed. Shortly after our first placement, we learned we would be having our bio son, and it’s been go-go-go from there! Lots of challenges, lots of good times, and we are always learning something new.

Likes
We love watching the progress kids make as they learn and grow; and we especially love seeing the interactions between our foster daughter and bio son.

Challenges
Busy schedules, teaching basic life skills to kids that might be missing things, and helping kids to work through trauma from experiences we have little to no knowledge about. But our family and our case workers have been very helpful, and when all else fails we call the MCJFS peer mentor.

Advice
To be a foster parent, you just need to have love to give and a willingness to try. Being a foster parent is by no means easy, but we have a great system of support in each other. Everyone is willing to help in any way they can.