Fosters Who Murder. A Foster Who Saved.

     There were violent deaths, sex abuse, and other tragic outcomes at some of the foster homes...

     Words from an article by reporter Aram Roston on the nation's largest foster care group. Makes you wonder if there's good in the world. 

     Well, this post is about one foster mom I know who's the proud mom of ten. Youngsters she fostered and then adopted so they have a forever family. 

     Some of her children are counting less than 10 candles on their birthday cake. And one, in her twenties, has given her a grandchild not old enough to blow out the first candle.

     Elise is in her early forties, but looks late twenties. She always has a smile on her face. Not because she's got a posh life with a nanny to corral and ferry-around her brood while she takes a spa-day. It's because Elise decided to give her heart to children who'd had theirs abandoned by parents in sad circumstances.

     Elise has no outside help, yet never fusses about balancing job and family. Nothing thrills her more than taking off time to be at school events or discovering each child's secret talent and seeing they get to activities that support their passion. She's set to go on vacation, and it's not about her getting away from her brood for some "me" time. It's about giving her kids the next new adventure.

     Elise may sound like a saint, but she's a saint whose feistiness and verve lets her rule her roost with the firm guidance it takes to keep a passel of kids on the straight and narrow.

     Just as she knows how to balance her time, Elise knows how to balance love and discipline - with the scales tipping in favor of love. (299 words)