Continued: Carver County families weigh big step: Becoming foster parents

Scott Eliason remembers the two members of his family only slightly after 35 years.

But as he and his wife, Carol, contemplate becoming foster parents in Carver County, memories of the two boys that his parents took in for a while came flooding back this week.

The Eliason family was among a dozen who showed up on a chilly Tuesday night to talk about becoming foster parents, for which there is a growing need in Carver County.

County social workers said the foster care system was overwhelmed last summer when they had to find homes for two groups of five siblings. Then, this fall, several of the roughly 45 foster-care-certified families on the county list decided not to renew their licenses, which put even more stress on the foster care system.

Enter people like the Eliasons, who've been thinking about doing foster care for years and decided to attend a presentation this week after seeing a news story that the county is looking to recruit more foster care families.

"It's a small step, but also a big step," Scott Eliason said this week while working in California after his wife attended the informational meeting. "We look at it as a way to give something back."

Social workers have been holding these recruitment meetings for months, sometimes with sparse attendance.

But even Tuesday's relatively large crowd of 12 will not be enough to ease the crunch.

Not only does it take as long as two years to get investigated and certified to become a foster parent, only about half of the people who attend an initial meeting ever submit an application, said David Chirpich, the social worker with Carver County who conducted the presentation.

A family affair

Scott Eliason is exploring becoming a foster parent in part because his parents provided foster care decades ago. He said he remembers the experience of having two additional brothers as being pleasant, though he was only 4 or 5 at the time.

Chirpich said most people benefit from the experience of being foster parents.

But, he warned those at the meeting about the challenges, because becoming a foster home changes family dynamics dramatically.

"That happened to me," said Barb Pike, a foster care provider for the county, who also attended the meeting. "Some day you will get a police call for an emergency 72-hour hold and the children will still be there nine months later."

Chirpich tried to be straightforward with the prospective parents. He noted, for example, the possibility that children taken in -- because of past or ongoing traumas -- will "act out."

"It doesn't happen often, but you should know it does happen," Chirpich told his audience, some of whom were visibly nervous when he mentioned two teenage boys who burned down a shed while smoking and a teenage girl who injured a pet bird that was pecking at her foot.

"I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew," said Carol Eliason, who with her husband has three boys, a 12-year-old and twin 8-year-olds.

Chirpich said one way to test the waters is to sign up for respite care, which involves taking in a child for an hour, a day or a weekend when the parent calls social services to say he or she needs a break.

"It's a nice way to get a feel for what foster care is about," Chirpich said.

Most of the prospective foster parents at the start of the presentation told Chirpich that they are at the beginning stages of getting involved.

That had not changed much at the end, although no one said definitively that they would not do it. Part of the uncertainty is not knowing how the rest of their family will react.

The Eliasons have talked to their three boys about possibly taking in foster children.

"We brought it up casually and they said they were fine with it," Scott Eliason said. "But we're not sure what to expect and I don't know that we can tell them what to expect."

Heron Marquez Estrada • 612-673-4280

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