Episode 183: Supporting Your Biological Children While Fostering (w/ Daniela Coats)

Since May is National Foster Care Awareness Month, I will be bringing you stories every week from the various perspectives of the foster care community—agency workers, foster parents, vulnerable adults, and children.

Will I be able to protect my biological children?Do I need to keep the natural birth order of my biological children intact in order to foster successfully?I’ve heard that children are resilient, so do I need to worry about my biological children?

I’ve heard questions like these from many in the foster care community, and I remember asking some of them myself when we first started the process of becoming foster parents.

Just as much as a new placement brings up challenging emotions for children in foster care, the same is true for our biological children. However, there isn’t as big of a focus on supporting biological children as they navigate the transition of welcoming new children into your home and dealing with the grief when they have to say goodbye to someone they may consider their sibling.

To help us understand more about how to support our biological children as we foster is Daniela Coats. Daniela is not only a Licensed Master Social Worker, but she is also a biological child of parents who fostered and eventually adopted. So she knows firsthand the difficult emotions that many biological children face alone. Daniela and her husband live in Texas with their six children, four by adoption and two by birth.

Listen in!

(Remember: Applications are now open for YOU to become a TFI Advocate, bridging the gap between foster care agencies and churches right in your local community. This only happens twice a year! Learn more and apply here.)

Show Notes: https://theforgotteninitiative.org/daniela-coats-183/

Learn More About Samaritan Ministries: https://samaritanministries.org/theforgottenpodcast