Foster families recognized for helping children

May 31--SUVs filled with balloons, fresh flowers and Girl Scout cookies slowly emptied as members of Broomfield's foster care and adoption team delivered those tokens of gratitude to foster parents earlier this month.

It was the first year Broomfield made a dedicated effort to recognize the 23 foster homes that serve children in the local program. Most are in Broomfield, but some are in Boulder, Erie, Thornton and Denver.

"Cookies and flowers aren't nearly enough for the amount of amazing things they do for these kids," Jonna Wagener, Broomfield's kinship foster care caseworker, said.

The team of seven visited neighborhoods, from ranch-style homes to mobile home parks, to personally thank family members who have taken in children or people who became certified to foster.

Broomfield residents Brigitte Hipp and her husband Will started classes as soon as they got back from their honeymoon. The couple, waslicensed in April 2016, and has fostered four children since. The first child was placed they same day they were licensed, something she said is rare, but happened because the department was strapped for help.

"Down the road, we want to adopt children, but until we were ready to start our own family we wanted to be involved in our community and fill a need in our community," Brigitte said. "We had called a few different agencies and talked to Health and Human Services, and knew how desperately they were in need of foster homes. We really saw we can make a big impact by doing this small thing."

Broomfield's HHS division always is looking for qualified parents, Wagener said, but times like May's National Foster Care Month is one way to draw attention to the program.

Her goal this yearis to keep all Broomfield children in Broomfield homes. A large recruitment effort at a local church in October doubled their number of homes, she said, but there are still local children in group homes or handled by child placement agencies.

"It's pretty traumatic on a kid to be moved and placed in a different home," Wagener said. "It makes the transition so much better for them if they can still stay in their same schools where they can still see their friends and (if they have) extended family."

Since the goal is reunification with birth parents, they have rights to visit their children in foster care, Wagener said, which is made more difficult when that home is in Littleton.

Some children are in state care because of neglect, she said, but the vast majority are there as a result of substance abuse: alcohol, opioids and methamphetamine. Some babies to Broomfield's care are straight from the hospital because they're withdrawing from drug exposure while in utero.

"We 100-percent are always looking for more foster homes," Wagener said. "Colorado is doing a huge push as a state, and while we haven't started our next recruitment event, whenever we do, we target people who want middle (8-year-olds) to teens."

Foster parents must be at least 21 years old, must have stable income and not rely on reimbursement from the state to raise foster children, and don't have to be married.

Emily Hendrix, who has been a foster parent with her husband Jeff for about four years, recently met two single women who knew there was a need and moved in together so they could co-parent as friends.

Hendrix learned about them, and others, when she and her husband were recognized by Robin Hickenlooper and Reggie Bicha, executive director of Colorado Department of Human Services, hosted an event to recognize five families across Colorado for their dedication to kids in foster care.

Hendrix said her family has had a total of seven long-term placements, with the first three lasting a little over a year and some overlapping. She said the experience has been difficult, but also incredibly rewarding.

"It's one of those things that you knew it was going to be hard going in, and all the things that were going to be hard aren't, and the things you thought would be fine are the hard things," Hendrix said.

One reason the couple was selected is the connections they made with their foster children's biological families and the mentoring and network building they helped establish with other Broomfield foster parents.

Hipp said Hendrix helped her family out when they began fostering and out of those connections with her and others, a support group was formed.

The group meets formally every other month for dinner at a local church that donates space, but they all have each other's contact information and reach out for help. They also help babysit for one another.

Hipp, who had fostered four children, said it's been rewarding to see them develop as they learn routines and have consistency in their young lives.

"It's nice to have parents who have gone through the same thing as you."she said.

Hendrix said the experience has also been positive on their birth children's views on social issues, and have formed some of their political opinions.

Their 19-year-old daughter is getting a degree in psychology, Hendrix said, and wants to become an attachment therapist and work with foster children, which comes as a direct result of their family's involvement in the program.

When discussing topics in social studies, her children have specific reasons for being for or against solutions to issues based on what they've personnally experienced, she said.

Her family has adopted one of their foster children -- a little girl they received when she was 3 months old.

"It became clear by the time she was about 1-year-old that her birth mother was not going to be able to do what she needed to do to get her back," Hendrix said. "Her birth mom asked me if her rights were terminated, would we agree to adopt her."

Since then, both families have kept in touch by calls, texts and in-person get-togethers either at a park or at their home.

With another foster child, they talked to that birth mother on the phone, took the child to the zoo and sent a "Christmas delegation" and delivered presents to the mother and her other children.

Hendrix said when she was initially uncertain about the state recognition because she doesn't feel like her family is unique.

"We're unique because we do foster care, but it's not that we're these amazingly-special people," she said. "We just have a desire to do it. We've made an effort and continue to learn and make improvements so it can work for us."

After the ceremony at the governor's mansion and meeting the other families, she felt more comfortable.

"I felt like they were highlighting the fact that regular people can do amazing things when they choose to," she said.

Jennifer Rios: 303-473-1361, riosj@broomfieldenterprise.com or Twitter.com/Jennifer_Rios

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