NEW RICHLAND — A child in need prompted Kelly Delacruz and Robert Shaw to act. And it’s been ongoing children in need who have kept them devoted to being foster parents in New Richland.
“We believe that everybody deserves a fair shake in life,” Delacruz said. “A lot of kids need someone to love them, care about them and give them boundaries.”
The couple is parenting one teen right now, but in the past three years have fostered 11 children — some for shorter stays through respite or weekend care and others for long-term care.
May is National Foster Care Month and there’s a shortage of foster parents statewide as well as in the Mankato region. “We are at capacity” in Mankato, said Candy Picka, Children’s Home and Lutheran Social Service foster care supervisor.
“That’s been a continual issue,” she said. “We are at capacity for foster homes in the Mankato area. We receive referrals almost daily that we’re not able to help. Our primary need at this point is for sibling groups and teens. We get a lot of referrals for those that we’re not able to place.”
Lutheran Social Service currently serves 25 kids and has 19 foster families in Mankato.
Picka looks at foster care as a way to give back to the community.
“It’s a way to build relationships with other families in your community,” she said. “And it’s rewarding for families. Doing foster care is hard. Children entering foster care have been through a traumatic experience and it takes patience, a lot of love and kindness. And time. It takes time to devote to these children who are really needing it in this critical time of their life.”
Often children come to foster families with outdated medical and dental histories and need go to appointments, Picka said. They might need other social service support as well.
“For us, it opens an understanding,” Delacruz said. “For us and our children it opens and broadens our views that there are other people in need. We have something available, and I just think it’s very humbling for our family and for our kids.”
Delacruz and Shaw share six biological kids ages 28 to 13, and for each foster placement in their home, there’s a family meeting whereby the unit decides if the foster child is a good fit for them.
“We don’t ever take any foster children in unless it’s agreed upon by the whole family,” Delacruz said. “Any time we get a call for placement, we sit down with our children and talk about it. We all agree as a family. It can be a big adjustment for our kids. We want to make sure it works for them as well as for our family as a whole.”
They offer foster kids a level of care they perhaps haven’t experienced before, she said.
“We offer stability and a comfortable, healthy family environment,” Delacruz said. “When we bring kids in, they become siblings to our children. There’s always someone there to provide care or someone to play with, someone to talk to. The foster child experiences something they’ve never experienced before or gone places they’ve never been able to go to before.”
She said the work is offset by the reward received in helping a child. She encourages other families to consider becoming a foster family through Lutheran Social Service.
“There’s a need, a shortage of families able and willing to do foster care,” Picka said. “And there’s children out there who need a temporary loving home.”
The ideal foster parent has time to devote to a child, an open mind and patience, she said.
“They need to have an understanding of what the child has been through and be able to work with them where they’re at and what they’re needing at that time,” Picka said.
If interested in getting more information, visit the Children’s Home and Lutheran Social Service’s website at chlss.org.