Article: Letter From Our CEO

Martin & Brooke Hansen

Dear Potential Foster Parent,

Let me start by expressing my thanks for your interest in becoming a Foster Parent.  My wife and I are parents to three children, two of which are now grown adults.  We continue to experience great joy in our children, but we also know how challenging parenting can be.  At this point in our lives, we are seeing much of the fruits of our labor. We have found that our children can provide us with our greatest challenges and successes.

Parenting is an incredible act of love and sacrifice.  Foster Parenting takes parenting to a whole new level.  I can think of few other endeavors in life that will be more beneficial than to help another human being gain a proper foundation, develop a support structure, and find emotional security.  If done right, you will have a positive effect on a child for the rest of their life.  In fact, your efforts may affect generations.

I believe that very few things in life, that are of real value, come without a price.  Not necessarily a monetary price, but there definitely is a cost.  Good things generally require sacrifice, patience, effort, and sometimes enduring sorrow.  Foster Care is no different.  The work you do will require deep understanding, the ability to forgive, the ability to listen, and most importantly the ability to love with no expectation of anything in return.  In the short term, you might feel unappreciated.  You might even feel like you are not making any progress.  These are typical feeling experienced by parents, but often magnified when you foster a child.  Take courage, the fruit comes later.

Foster Care may or may not be for you and your family.  We totally understand.  In fact, we have great respect for those that make honest determinations based on their own abilities and family dynamics.  Unlike a typical company, whose goal is to sell their product to as many customers as possible, Legacy’s business model is to ONLY place our product in the hands of willing, capable, and trained foster parents.  Our product is not a thing, but a human life, and Legacy’s business model says that children have the right to the best foster homes available.  Consequently, the process of certification is more than just training.  It is also an extended interview process.  During the certification process, we ask that you evaluate your abilities and circumstances relative to the information we will be providing.  Likewise, you will be filling out a lot of paperwork that will give us in sight into you and your life.  If all goes well, you and Legacy will both come to the conclusion that Foster Parenting is for you.  The decision to not move forward as foster parents doesn’t make anyone bad people, it just means that the circumstances were not quite right.

We hope as you go through the training, you will ask lots of questions.  We hope you will put our trainers to the test.  Get a good understanding of what to expect.  Thank you for considering our Agency and the possibility of fostering a child.

Sincerely,
Martin Hansen

President / CEO
Legacy Behavioral Services, Inc.

 

 

 

  For more information on becoming a foster parent click here.

 

  Be sure to check the  FAQ  for our most asked questions and answers. 

 

  If you have more questions or want to become a foster parent, please contact us today.

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