Grace for the Kids: Foster mom says opening up her home has ‘changed her life for the better’

NEW HANOVER COUNTY, N.C. (WECT) - Laura Martin said deciding to become a foster parent was not easy, but three years in, she said the experience has changed her life.

Martin and her husband foster sibling sets through Boys & Girls Homes of North Carolina. She also has a 6-year-old stepson. Since opening her home, she said about 10 children have come through.

“Each of them has just been a joy to get to know,” Martin said.

Martin said her role is to provide children with a safe place when they need it.

“From the moment a child arrives to the moment they leave, we definitely just take it one day at a time,” she said. “We welcome every child into our home with open arms, open hearts, open minds.”

However, the fear of not being enough almost kept her from taking on the role.

“The fear that maybe I wasn’t going to be good at it, or that I would make mistakes,” Martin said. “It definitely wasn’t a quick process. We thought about it for a very, very long time and then eventually took the step.”

Martin said Boys & Girls Homes of North Carolina made the process more manageable than she expected.

“They give you a very extensive training, and they teach you the basic skills that you’re going to need to help the children adapt,” she said. “When a child or children come into the family, we have a person there to help us secure daycare, doctors’ appointments, work with our challenges as they arise.”

Donna Yalch, who oversees the Boys & Girls Homes foster program, said North Carolina lost about 25% of its foster parents during COVID-19 and has not recovered those numbers.

“I mean, the state has kids that are sleeping in Department of Social Services,” Yalch said. “There are some DSS’s that have taken a room and turned it into a bedroom for kids that have to stay there.”

Yalch said the organization specifically needs foster parents willing to take teenagers and more foster parents in Brunswick and New Hanover counties. Yalch said keeping children close to their communities is a priority.

“Our goal is to keep the child that we get a referral for to go in foster care — to keep them as close to their community as possible,” she said. “That is so important for their development, for them to feel safe, secure, be able to see their parents.”

Martin said most of the children she has fostered have been reunited with their biological families, and she has stayed in contact with many of them.

“It’s heartbreaking, but it is incredibly rewarding at the same time,” she said. “After they have done the work and the families have done the work, to see them go home into a much healthier environment — it’s amazing. We have kids that call us godparents, kids that we still celebrate birthdays with and holidays and their small achievements, their big achievements,” Martin said.

For anyone even considering fostering, Martin offered this:

“I would say that if you’ve thought about it, you can probably do it,” she said. “Foster parents, myself included, are far from perfect. We’re not superheroes, we’re not anything special. We just show up, and we continue to show up. We share all the love and support and guidance that we can.”

To learn more about fostering opportunities through Boys & Girls Homes of North Carolina, click here.