Ode to Foster Daddies!

This Father's Day, I'd like to pay a tribute to all the Daddies that love kids that are not really "theirs" just like they are.  This hard calling might be easier for a mama that's nurturing and typically wired more for compassion and empathy, but foster Daddies are right there in the trenches cleaning up spit up or vomit-filled car seats, and changing plenty of dirty diapers for kids that will never remember their sacrifices.

He gets up with another man's baby in the middle of the night.


When no one shows up for visits, He shows up to play Legos.

He speaks gently and graciously to a single mother whose drug abuse impacted his life greatly.

When no one else is willing to step up for a child, He does.

He puts together a crib suddenly for a teen foster child, and her new baby.

When his wife has no dinner plans due to the chaos that reigns and 400 minutes she spent on the phone with child welfare issues, he scrambles eggs or hits the drive through and moves on.

He sits through many training meetings he doesn't want to be in to stay licensed to snuggle a drug-addicted baby who needs the soothing love of a Daddy's strong chest.

Seneca Foster Daddy Reads to his foster son.

He holds his wife who cries when a child leaves, or sometimes just because she's feeling totally defeated.

He may feel the same overwhelmed feelings a mother does at the great task of being a gap-filler for a child that's lost so much, but He still says yes.

They show the love of a "good, good father" to kids that quite possibly have never had a Daddy to listen to them, wrestle with them, joke them, discipline them kindly, or pick them up in strong arms.  After their season in his house, it might be the last Daddy they get to know, that shows them what a  committed Dad should be like. Thank you to all our foster Dads!  You deserve all our respect.