Now Available!
Simply Available
You CAN Foster Parent Long-Term and Stay Sane!
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“A lot of ordinary days serving in your own home can actually add up to an extraordinary life.”
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Part memoir, part call to action, and all practical guidebook, Simply Available invites you into a great adventure where you offer up your life and family to positively impact a child’s future.
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The choice to offer generous hospitality by becoming a foster parent is a life altering choice. You’ll never see the world the same again. Parenting a child who has experienced trauma isn’t simple.
Lessons drawn from Abby’s experiences in foster care and her mindset for fostering takes the guesswork out of how to build trusting and positive relationships with traumatized children, caseworkers, and biological families. With a direct frankness you’re not likely to hear at any formal training Abby helps parents:
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—Consider the expectations they may have for working with foster children, biological families, and child welfare agencies.
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—Evaluate the impact of foster care on their personal lives and family structure.
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—Discuss foster care fears and contemplate the positive outcomes of fostering.
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—Strategize about how they can show up fully for children who’ve been wounded.
Abby Crooks is a teacher and founder and Executive Director of Fostering Faithfully (fosteringfaithfully.org) a nonprofit serving foster children, foster parents, kinship caregivers, and the SC Department of Social Services in three counties. She and her husband, Jonas, have been raising children (biological (2), adopted (2), foster (45)) for over eighteen years on a cattle farm in South Carolina. When they are not following kids around, they are tree huggers who can often be found on hiking adventures in the great outdoors.
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She can often be found speaking to recruit foster families, cheering on both new and seasoned foster families, serving DSS caseworkers, leading a support group, planning special events to connect foster families and help children feel cherished, and advocating fiercely for the needs of foster children and foster parents. She has a master’s degree in education and continues to teach high school business and marketing courses at her district’s career center.
Meet the Fam!
When I was 17, I discovered my life's calling was to foster and adopt by coming alongside a foster mom in my church. When our second son was fifteen months old, we went to our pre-adoptive training courses and our family has been growing ever since!
Foster care is no walk in the park! Check out my book for a look into how we've made it work and stayed mostly sane!
