Meet our Families - Missy & Damon

Meet Missy and Damon! They have been married for 2 years and have been MCJFS foster parents for 5 months. They currently have 2 little girls placed in their home.

Beginnings
Missy: I started teaching kids when I was just a teen. I got to work with kids from a variety of backgrounds and I found myself taking on that mom role for many of the kids. I knew I wanted to help people, and foster care seemed like the perfect fit.
Damon: Missy brought it up a long time ago, but I didn’t really know what it meant and I didn’t really think about it. I was happy to just support my wife, but once I started to learn about it, I realized that I have a part in it, not just as a supportive spouse.

Likes
Damon: It’s amazing the positive impact fostering has had on our family unit. It provides cohesiveness – you have an excuse to come together more. I’ve seen my wife more since we’ve had the girls than in our first year of marriage.
Missy: I love absolutely everything about it. I truly feel like I stepped into my calling when these girls were placed in our home. This is what I was made for.

Challenges
There are a lot of moving pieces, and it can be a lot of work to keep everyone on the same page. Fostering is all the work of parenting, plus a little more because of the connection we want to cultivate with the biological families of the kids in our home. We are constantly reading, listening to podcasts, and talking to people with experience to better connect with families. Being able to put myself in the other person’s shoes is so crucial and I want to make sure I’m doing everything I can to help biological families feel comfortable and engaged. 

Advice
Damon: Utilize your community. MCJFS has done such a good job with building community and it’s so great to have the chance to learn from others with actual lived experience. Set aside time to accept the support that is being offered. It takes a village to raise a child, but sometimes it takes a village to keep us going.
Missy: Be the bridge between the agency workers, biological family, service providers, and anyone else in the kids’ lives. Be the person who is the communicator. It only benefits the kids when everyone knows what’s going on. It’s a little bit of extra work we can do to take some pressure off everyone else’s already overflowing plates.