THANK YOU!

• It's hot, 14 soccer games
• Happy to be in the AC
• Hope I can keep you awake after lunch!

SOMEWHERE IN THE PROGRAM

• Goofy picture and paragraph
• Purpose of the bio
• I had to write it. So hard!
• PR person, nah
• Next group of supporters
• **slides from kids**

PRETTY AWESOME BOOSTS

• Got my friend to do it
• Boring. True, facts, superficial
• None of these are really me
• You could make some assumptions but is it enough

DONT WE DO THIS THOUGH?

• Someone calls and tells us ab a kid- a brief intro, and we say yes. Sometimes there is a whole lot more to that kid
• How often do we let behaviors label the kid?

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• How many times to we miss opportunities bc of the label?
• The generalized way we think make me wonder who am I? **Slide**

IF I GOT TO WRITE WHAT I WANT

• My personal intro
• **slide**
• Read intro from the paper
• Tells you more ab me
• Other perspectives still count
• If I challenged you, could you write a bio? What would your family say?

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• Can you describe fostering?
• **slide**
• Important to understand your own self concept as part of the team
• Dogwalker
• Dentist
• Foster parent in one sentence?

ROLES ARE VARIED

• Mom of this kid is different than mom of that kid
• What does this mean?
• Range of skills

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• Parenting kids from trauma requires so much more. Like parenting on steroids
• Professional skills, pulling knowledge from mental health, trauma, addiction, Devo delays, interpersonal violence

SOMETIMES YOU NEED THESE SKILLS JUST TO GET THRU DINNER...

• So this makes our lives hard
• Messy and hard and stressful and hard....did I say hard?
• Systems are complicated and confusing and messy
• Emotions vs policies, wants and needs, heart actions vs case worker instructions...
• We make good choices, common sense, integrity, and the info that we have-

SO WHY DO WE DO THIS?

• To add to your family
• You want to give back
• You have resources to share
• Mostly this is a calling/lifestyle
• No one does it for the money

WE DO THIS TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

• Not for the faint of heart
• Behavior, and drama, and chaos
• Followed by sweetness- like when they are sleeping. Lol
• Seriously trust and affection
• How do we get more of this?

SOME DAYS IM LUCKY TO BE DRESSED AND UPRIGHT

• What does it take to be good?
• **slide**
• Why we started matters
• Long list
• To do, instead of how to do
• The cost of caring...
• **slide**
• What do we see
• Health concerns, communication, friends, zero tolerance, stuck in the same old, becoming cynical or judge mental, hopeless
• Might be you

WHAT TO DO?

• Hardest thing for us...
• Focus on us. This is why I can't write my bio. I'm never first or good enough or paying attention to what I'm good at or what I need. Plan to, just don't have time

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