Diana McFarland

 

Diana McFarland is a Foster parent and came to give us an insight to her family and what it's like to be foster parent.  Diana and her husband, Ron, have been foster parents since 2004.  Her and Ron wanted a baby and opted to go through the foster care system, but didn't plan on adopting any of the children.  Their first child that came to them was a 6 week old girl, in very bad shape, whose name was Melissa, and Melissa's 3yr old brother, Issah, who was also malnourished.  Diana and Ron did end up adopting the 2 children, along with a 3rd sibling when the child was only 3 days old!  Diana and Ron are still foster parents, but haven't adopted any more of their foster children.  New Channel 5 even did a news story on them. 

 

To become a foster parent, you have to go through background checks, fingerprinting, home inspections, applications, and 9 week training courses.  The good news is that anyone can be a foster parent no matter if your a single parent or blended family. In 2006, there were 1670 kids placed in foster homes in the area, 565 that were place in permanent homes and 1989 that were reunited with their parents, for a total of 4224 children in the program.  You can see how important the DCFS program is and how much it is dependent on Foster Care families.