April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.
ST. CATHERINE'S CENTER, ALBANY
Foster family has parented 110 times over
Mrs. Andersen and her husband, Kenneth, became involved with St. Catherine's Center for Children in Albany after attending a class on foster parenting in 2000. Since then, the Andersens have taken in around 110 foster children.
St. Catherine's Center provides services, including therapeutic foster care, for children and families dealing with issues like abuse, neglect and emotional disturbances. Therapeutic foster care combines clinicians, sociotherapists and case planners to assist children and families.
Foster children can come into care with families like the Andersens for a night or a weekend, for short-term placement or for long-term placements of up to three years.
"After about two years, it's most likely going to be an adoption," said Mrs. Andersen.
Birth parents have 18 months to comply with whatever the court has ordered them to do in order to regain custody of their children.
"The main goal of foster care is always to reunify with the parents," Mrs. Andersen explained. "But if they aren't making visits, going to appointments, going to drug counseling or whatever it is they've been asked to do," reunification is unlikely.
Patricia DeJesus, St. Catherine's deputy executive director of programs, said foster parents must learn about trauma and take CPR courses and Model Approach Partnership Parenting (MAPP), a course designed to help them prepare to take in children.
Everyone's involved
"Our three birth children have done foster care as much as we have," Mrs. Andersen remarked.
In addition to their three birth children, the Andersen family has adopted six children through the foster care system.
Andrew came first, in 2001. He was the first Safe Haven baby of Troy: His birth mother put him into foster care through the Safe Haven Act, which allows a mother to relinquish a child up to a month old at a designated hospital, church or other location without facing charges of neglect if she feels she is unable to properly care for the infant.
"That was our first placement," Mrs. Andersen remembered. "He did some visits, but he never went home."
Another of their children, Madison, was born with respiratory and vocal cord issues. Because both Mr. and Mrs. Anderson are respiratory therapists, they are qualified to take in children who have more specific medical needs. Madison's birth mother had a mental illness that has prevented visitation, but the child continues to see her birth aunt and grandmother.
"I totally believe in letting the children see the birth family if it's safe. It's part of their story," said Mrs. Andersen.
Welcome home
The Andersen's next adopted child is Melisa, who has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD) and Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD). The latter is defined by a child having a hard time bonding with people due to many transfers from birth homes to foster care placements.
"Carlie and Charlie were next," Mrs. Andersen said. The sister and brother were adopted in 2008; they had come into the foster care system because of domestic violence and neglect in their birth family. These were the oldest children the family has ever taken; Carlie was 11 and Charlie was eight.
"When they come into care older, it's harder. They remember their birth family. And they want to be with their mom at any cost, no matter what's going on in the family. A lot of people don't understand that," said Mrs. Andersen.
Gabrielle came to the Andersons as a heroin-addicted newborn. Mrs. Andersen had to give her morphine for the first three months of her life to help her with withdrawal.
Gabrielle is Jewish, but a court ruled that she needed to be in a medically-fit home, rather than a home that was of her heritage.
"She knows she's Jewish, and we will make sure she knows everything about her heritage," said Mrs. Andersen.
No identity crises
It's important to the Andersens to make sure that each of their children has his or her own identity: "I don't believe in keeping a secret from them. I don't want them to have an identity crisis when they're older," Mrs. Andersen said.
Mr. Andersen said all the children bond as a family.
"Because we do things together, they realize we're a family. We may not be a 'normal family,' but we're still a family," he said.
Creating this family takes understanding of each child's specific needs. People who enter the Andersen home or any foster home must understand that the children behave in certain ways because of what they've been through, Mrs. Andersen explained.
"People don't realize how hard it is," she said. "Sometimes, we have meltdowns [in our home]. If you don't understand what these kids have been through, you don't understand things like that. Sometimes, instead of talking about what happened at school, they'll talk about if their birth father is in jail or where their birth family is. You wish you didn't have to see them go through that."
System works
One of the biggest challenges in foster parenting is criticism of the foster care system.
"What if everyone said that?" counters Mrs. Andersen. "It's not about you, it's about the child.
"Our faith has increased a lot by working together with each other," she added.
The family has witnessed what she called "miracles" during their involvement with the foster care system: for example, when their adopted daughter Madison was a baby, they were told her brain was abnormal.
"I prayed over her, and her next CAT scan was normal," said Mrs. Andersen. "We've definitely experienced miracles."[[In-content Ad]]
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